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The Edmonds City Council is scheduled to hold a budget retreat starting at 1 p.m. Saturday, May 8.
The agenda includes a discussion of the 2022 city budget, a review of council roles and responsibilities and last year’s council priorities (see our story on the 2020 budget retreat here) and a discussion of councilmembers’ priorities for this year.
The council will also talk about biennial budgeting. The City of Edmonds currently operates under an annual budget cycle, although nearby cities including Lynnwood and Mountlake Terrace have biennial budgets
The meeting will be held virtually using the Zoom meeting platform. To view or listen to the meeting in its entirety, paste the following into a web browser using a computer or smart phone:
https://zoom.us/j/95798484261
Or join by phone: US: +1 253 215 8782 Webinar ID: 957 9848 4261
You can see the complete agenda here.
This will be the most important City Council meeting of the year. One should go to the city web site and download the “Packet” for this meeting. It has important details of how the council will address the budget process. Maybe MEN can post the link to the packet which is has more details than the agenda.
“Show me the Money!” or “Follow the Money!” Folks will learn things about our current budget. I recall being told that our expensed are down 12% and our Tax revenues are also down but only by 5%. We are actually adding to our reserves. We also will get a Fed Grant in the area of $9-10M. Grants will have some stipulations on how it can be spent but likely we will have more latitude than grants like “bike lanes”.
Read the minutes from past council retreats and you will see the “guru” of city budgeting, Mike Bailey will be Again speaking to Council. When at the City of Redmond, he did probably the best job of any city implementing Budgeting By Priorities (or Outcomes). It was a citizen driven process and help the city do more of what the people wanted.
When we did the Strategic Action Plan, BBP was the overwhelming leading vote of our citizens!
For retreat after retreat and once again at this retreat Mr. Bailey will have a leading role with council. It is long past time that we move forward with BBP. We know how to do it. Council has had numerous “retreats” to discuss it. With all the changes we have and are making to our budget due to CV19 and the new moneys we have, it is time citizens weight in on how we spend it.
Please look at the packet and watch this retreat.
Here’s the link to the packet: http://edmondswa.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=1&ID=2857&Inline=True