Creating a Collaborative Budget Process.

• Author: Banks, Darrell
• Position: FINANCE: THE CITY OF COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS

Not long ago, the budget process for the City of College Station, Texas, was what Director of Fiscal Services Mary Ellen Leonard describes as a "kind of cloak-and-dagger" affair.

Departments would receive their projected budgets and then turn in sheets with their budget requests to the budget team. A group consisting of the city manager, the assistant city manager, the director of fiscal services, and the budget manager would then sift through and prioritize the requests in a closed-door meeting. The group would leave the meeting with the completed budget that had been divined by what people thought was "some kind of magic behind the scenes," Leonard said.

As a result, some departments would go directly to the city council with budget requests that had not been granted, causing unexpected changes to the budget.

"It was uncomfortable for me. It went against ho w I was taught in the private sector about how things needed to happen," Leonard explained. "It was really kind of odd to me that we would just go into a room, and I would come out saying, 'Go do this.'"

When a newly appointed city manager tasked Leonard with improving the city's FY 2020 budget process, these frustrations were top of mind for Leonard and her team, he request was simple. "He basically said he wanted me to figure out how to make the process collaborative, Leonard said.

Leonard, in partnership with Erik Walker, city budget manager, took this directive and developed a process that Walker describes as "breaking the mold of what they've done before."

They call their new process the Budget Congress.

"We would take a little bit of what had been done, but then make that secret room meeting wide open," Leonard said. "And that secret room meeting is what became the Budget Congress."

Leonard explained how the new process works. The directors submit their priorities, and then the budget team sets aside some days for each department to explain their requests in greater detail and why they matter to the city manager group. At that point, the other directors can listen. "They don't have to be there, but all do show up now, and they listen to what has happened with the other departments and what their needs are," she said. After that meeting, the group puts together a survey form listing the departmental requests and asks the directors to rank the requests and tell the group what they think the city needs.

At this point, some of the directors take what they've learned in the meetings...