Organizational Excellence

Be an innovative, effective, engaged, and transparent organization focused on quality programs and services.

Goal 2, Objective 3

Ensure the County budget process and information are understandable, accessible, and in a format that enables the public to identify County investments and funding for major initiatives and services.
In Progress 35%

Updated: January 2023

Summary of Objective Implementation Status

Work is underway to implement Service Area Budgeting, which will more clearly tie the County budget and budget process to major initiatives and services.  The FY 2022-23 Adopted budget included an enhanced focus on service areas to tie the information and explanations of changes to the services being provided rather than more abstract budgeting categories.  As part of the FY 2023-24 budget process, staff are working with all departments to better refine service areas and tie budgeting to the services being provided.  In review of the implementation plan it was determined that development of performance metrics would better wait until after implementation of service areas and to better coincide with OE1-3, the establishment of Customer Service Metrics.

Key Milestone Update

  • Launch Service Area Budgeting transition with pilot departments to better understand challenges and opportunities
October, 2021 – Complete
  • Include service area budgets for initial wave of departments in FY 22-23 Budget Book
June, 2022 – Complete
  • Begin work with volunteer departments to develop practices for compiling, monitoring, and reporting metrics.
August 2022 – Rescheduled; anticipated late 2023
  • Survey Departments on metrics that are currently tracked, how they are reported, and how they are used.
December 2022 – Rescheduled; anticipated late 2023/early 2024
  • Expand Service Area Budgets to all departments and revamp budget narratives around service areas in FY 2023-24 Budget book.
June, 2023 – On target
  • Develop metrics in conjunction with “early adopter” departments
June 2023 – Rescheduled; anticipated mid 2024
  • Develop metrics in conjunction with remaining departments
June 2024 – Rescheduled; anticipated for FY 2025-26 budget
  • Assorted continuous improvement items
Ongoing – on target

Coordination and Partnership Update

N/A

Community, Equity, and Climate Update

Creating a more transparent budget benefits all users.  The budget is primarily accessed online, so there are not significant geographic barriers to its use.  As part of the continuous improvement model, staff will consider additional options to further make the budget accessible, including exploring whether the document should be translated, however as a very long document with relatively low readership, there may be other lower-hanging fruit.

Funding Narrative

No additional funding is needed at the current stage of development.  As we expand into performance metrics, some resources may be needed.