City of Evanston

FY 2012 Budget Preparation Update

Posted by Wally Bobkiewicz on May 14, 2011 at 11:53 AM

The City Council will be discussing next steps in the FY 2012 budget preparation process Monday night. The staff report on this can be found as a PDF document here.

The report contains the results of the “Engage Evanston” outreach efforts May 1-7 and provides additional details on the process for reviewing all City services.

Probably of most interest is the list of 39 ideas for service changes that I am proposing to the City Council that staff spend the next 75 days reviewing and developing proposals for implementation. This list was developed by me using the input from “Engage Evanston” as well as other budget outreach efforts over the last eighteen months. Each idea for service changes will be evaluated to see if there is an opportunity to change how we deliver the service. “Change” is a broad term in this instance. The result of these service evaluations could mean that we expand our efforts in the area by taking on more work from other organizations (contacting in) to make money on the provision of the service; continue to provide the service using existing City resources with some modifications for efficiencies; continue to provide the service, but no longer use City staff (contracting out); or no longer provide the service at all.

There are several City facilities listed among the 39 areas for review. I do not anticipate that any of these facilities would close. However, I do believe there are options to use these facilities in different ways to provide the same or similar services that may not include the City.

The next discussion of the FY 2012 budget preparation with the City Council after Monday is scheduled for Monday August 8. At that meeting, the results of the work described above will be shared with the City Council, staff and the community. A second community engagement process will take place during August and September to get feedback on the results of the review of the 39 areas reviewed as well as the evaluation of all City programs. The proposed budget then goes to City Council in early October