Back to the base: citizen involvement and the budget process.

• Author: Saintamour, William

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In tough times, the best way to strengthen the value of local government services to citizens is to engage them. Getting a sense of how satisfied they are is good, but finding out what is important and what drives behaviors such as remaining in the community and recommending it to others is powerful information for making tough budget decisions and doing community planning.

Communities that have the foresight to do a citizen survey often do well in such studies, according to the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG). However, both managers and elected officials can be reluctant to take that step because they worry about getting a bad report card and not having the resources to do anything about it. Faced with three consecutive years of declining revenues (and some analysts' projections of another decade before the next dramatic increase occurs), this is the situation many municipal planners find themselves in. SEMCOG recommends applying business practices to local government. Rule One: Find out what customers think of the product (public services and programs), what reductions they will accept, and what they are willing to pay for. The key to retaining or rebuilding trust (and to avoid emergency funding management for municipalities in crisis) is to involve those with skin in the game: citizens.

WARREN: CAPTURING CITIZEN PRIORITIES

Warren, Michigan's third-largest city (with about 140,000 people), is home to both a major DaimlerChrysler factory and the General Motors Technical Center. Over the past decade, the city has experienced significant growth. Like most communities, Warren residents want good schools and better city services, along with lower taxes. The work force is high quality, and the city provides relatively generous employee compensation. Today, in spite of nearly 20 percent unemployment, Warren still has a healthy general fund balance; however, several years ago, managers projected that balance would disappear by 2012 unless spending was curbed. Faced with this threat, the city council initiated CityStat in December 2008. The goal of the Stat program was to "right-size" the city government, but cutting government services and programs is never simple. Cutting too much in the wrong places lowers customer satisfaction and makes people want to leave.

The mayor of Warren believed that residents would not support the city if they were not given a voice in decision making, including the budget process. In summer 2009, Warren contracted with Cobalt Community Research--a non-profit research coalition that helps local governments, schools, and membership organizations measure, benchmark, and manage their efforts through shared data, surveys, focus groups, and meetings--which leads a coalition program called the Citizen Engagement and Priority Assessment. This program uses the science behind the University of Michigan's American Customer Satisfaction index to assess residents' expectations and how well government performs those services they consider important (see Exhibit 1). Participating communities can use the information to focus time and budget where the return is strongest and uncover effective improvement opportunities. Financial managers can also use Cobalt's annual regional and national benchmarks to compare local perceptions, performance, and quality of life with those of other communities. Assessment results, which are sometimes surprising, can help governments craft a budget that delivers the most value for the least cost.

Based on voter registration records, 1,500 citizens were surveyed, with a 35 percent rate of return. Areas surveyed included community image, local public schools, transportation infrastructure, fire services, police and sheriff services, utility services, taxes, parks and recreation, library services, Internet services, quality of life, health services, community events, economic health, behavior intentions (whether residents planned to stay in the community, if they would recommend it to others, if they are willing to be a community volunteer, and if they support the current administration), and city-specific services and programs.

The survey showed the city where it stood. Warren performed well, especially when compared to large-city national and Michigan benchmarks. For example, on a scale of zero to 100 (with 100 being highly satisfied), the score for Warren's police department was 75.3. That compares to benchmark scores of 70.9 nationally and 73.2 in Michigan. The fire department scored 81.9, compared with benchmark scores of 72.3 nationally and 77.7 for the state. However, the assessment also discovered that areas of high importance to citizens did not always coincide with high levels of satisfaction. New business development, blight control, and crime control are three...