City Hall seeks help with budget

Spokane residents are being asked to help City Hall figure out how best to cut at least 5 percent from the city’s $121 million general fund budget.

Two public meetings have been scheduled for early July, and the city is circulating a budget questionnaire to elicit community comment.

The first meeting will be Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at the East Central Community Center gymnasium at Fifth and Stone.

The second meeting will be on July 9 at 6 p.m. in Council Chambers at City Hall and will be held in conjunction with members of the Community Assembly of the city’s neighborhood councils.

Mayor Jim West said he will attend the second meeting to listen to citizen comments, but he is planning to join a trade mission to Calgary, Alberta, next week and will be out of town during the first meeting.

Earlier this month, West launched a consultant-guided effort to sort out city priorities and apply cuts to programs or jobs that rank low on the list. A series of eight general priorities were established last week by city staff as the basis for the rankings.

They include growth and learning; healthy citizens; healthy environment; leadership; mobility; reduced vulnerability; safety; and a strong economy.

Cuts could lead to layoffs throughout general fund departments, which include police, fire, streets, parks, libraries and others. Department heads will be asked to submit “bids” to provide services, and the bids must meet one or more of the priorities.

The effort is being led by a consulting firm, Public Strategies Group of St. Paul, Minn., which specializes in what it calls a “priorities of government” approach. One of the consultants is Peter Hutchinson, co-author of a 2004 book called “The Price of Government.”

The state of Washington used the system for budget cuts two years ago.

“It’s a new way of figuring out what we are doing,” West said.

The mayor and his staff plan to present a revised 2004 budget to the City Council on July 26. The council is expected to hold at least one and maybe two public hearings on budget revisions prior to a vote, which could come in early August, said Council President Dennis Hession.

“I would expect we would give the public a couple of opportunities to weigh in on this,” he said.

But the council will be under some pressure to take a vote within a few weeks to give the city administration as much time as possible to accomplish the $5 million in savings needed to end the budget year in the black, he said.

The administration also wants to end the year with a minimal cash carryover. An additional 2 percent cut is expected for 2005.

“I think we need to deal with it right away,” Hession said.

The council and city staff are drawing off previous efforts to establish the public’s priorities for city government, including the Spokane Horizons work in the 1990s. “It’s not a big surprise what the priorities are,” Hession said. “It’s what fits underneath them and what doesn’t.”

In addition to hearings, the public will have a chance to comment on the budgeting process through a form that is being posted on the city of Spokane’s Web site at www.spokanecity.org. The form also will be available at community centers and city libraries.

Results will be compiled and submitted to the mayor’s office for use in determining what services rank high on the list of priorities, said Marlene Feist, the city’s public affairs officer.