|
Every weekend, Elizabeth and campaign volunteers are out walking the neighborhoods of Benicia. We share our enthusiasm for the Mayoral election, and we ask what concerns and questions people have for Elizabeth. On this page, we present some of the burning questions we are hearing on the Campaign Trail.
Benicia - this is what you are asking about! |
Week of August 4: How would you describe the City's new Budget?
Councilwoman Patterson responds ...
On the whole, the city's finances are in good shape. Our debt load (the amount of money borrowed) is well below the standards set by the state. Here are a few highlights of our budget. Also there is a discussion of what one of our major industries' approach has been toward paying taxes.
A couple of points should be made about the budget process. After three years of effort, I am pleased to say that we have an adopted budget based more on strategic planning than any budget before. When I was elected in 2003 and we began the budget process in 2004, I established a set of criteria by which to judge or rank a number of items on the city's to-do list. Good idea, but it became a debacle because my colleagues used the 10 points for each item as a vote, rather than a ranking score. So, the most popular item got the most votes. The reason this is not the best approach is because there was no way to leverage limited funds spread around the "top ten" projects. The second flaw was that there was no distinction between the projects and policies. This year the process was more successful. We used a "building blocks" approach and funded projects and policies that have multiple objectives. While not perfect, the budget for 2007-2009 is in good shape.
Budget challenges:
Major capital projects include the restoration of the Commandants, Mills Community Center, waste water and storm water projects, the X-Park (skateboard), Benicia High School traffic signal (including traffic calming measures), improvements to the Library basement, replacement of two fire trucks, fixing the Police building, State Park bicycle bridge project design, and Benicia High School lower field renovation.
Strategic Priorities were based on citizen survey performed and analyzed, city commissions' recommendations and public workshops with interactive small group discussions and development of strategic community issues and goals (my pet project).
Refer to the city's website for budget details, amounts and summaries: [link to city budget]
Service Level Enhancements include: code enforcement (finally!), library adult services and literacy, community center development, skate park development, expanding citizen emergency volunteers (BERT), senior services program expansion and arts and human services (still well below what needs to be done).
Fiscal strengths maintained or enhanced: balanced budget, twenty percent minimum reserve maintained, segmentation of reserves (adopted) and Marina Enterprise self-sufficiency. |
