I see how it might seem that way to people who aren’t paying attention. The part that is newsworthy is always the result of the final act that formally creates a new ordinance, investment, or policy on a formal City Council Agenda and is nearly always recommended by the City Manager.
So the question really is this: Where did the recommendation come from? In our chosen form of government, The Mayor and City Council are the elected officials that operate as a board of directors, determining the public policy of the city. The City Council has only three employees, the City Clerk, the City attorney, and the City Manager. The City Manager is the Chief Executive Officer of the city organization. All of the employees work for one of these three positions, most for the City Manager.
The Code of Iowa requires City Managers to recommend policy to the Mayor and City Council. Our extensive process leads us to early consensus on most issues assuring that the City Manager’s recommendations align with the policy direction he has received from the Mayor and City Council.
We are talking and listening to citizens all year long, learning about their challenges, needs and wants. Every summer we each individually spend some time talking with our professional facilitator about the things we see that are needed for future agendas. The facilitator compiles an exhaustive list of initiatives from these interviews with city council members as well as all of the city department directors that are meticulously reviewed and debated in three days of special public goal setting sessions every fall. Requests also come from our several citizen boards and commissions as well as neighborhood associations and partnering not for profit agencies.
These sessions are brutal, in that they separate wants from needs, the impossible from the possible and the affordable from the not. We start with many – probably around 100-150 great ideas, every one of which would make living here a bit better, and whittle it down to ten top priorities and a group of high priorities. Most end up not adopted. The last days of goal setting include reviews by the department directors explaining the human and financial resources needed to complete the proposed goals. Some may fall into the impossible or unaffordable category at this phase. Then comes the final cut. There is a sense of melancholy leaving the goal setting sessions where things that were important to each of us did not make the cut. However, there is also a sense of pride in the list that was adopted, the consensus that built it and the opportunity for the future is we can pull it off.
This provides the City Manager and his staff their roadmap for the future and particularly the next policy budget year. The departments all assess their roles in accomplishing the list of goals and develop budget proposals based on them. The City Manager holds hearings with the department directors and their key team members and builds his budget recommendation from these hearings. He also holds a public informal meeting where he seeks input from citizens.
Iowa Code requires that in late winter the City Council has to set the maximum property tax rate. This is the first required step in setting the budget for the coming fiscal year. The City Manager has to make a recommendation for this rate that allows enough resources to accomplish the maintenance of city services and provide funding and policy for any new initiatives to accomplish the goals and priorities set by the council the previous fall. This is done after a public hearing and at the beginning of the budget adoption process. Once the maximum tax rate is set the City Council cannot exceed it in the remaining steps to set the budget.
Next up will be a special public City Council Meeting where the City Manager presents his proposed budget in some detail as required by the code of Iowa This is the council’s first look at the work that has been occurring for several months at City Hall.
Over the next few weeks the City Council hold public budget hearings for each of the city departments These seven evening meetings usually cover three or four departments and are typically four or five hours long. The departments update the council and citizens on their success and challenges and proposed new initiatives for the council’s consideration. Citizens are invited to speak on the proposals. These initiatives may or may not have received the City Manager’s recommendation for approval. The City Council could choose to adopt non-recommended proposals, but there would have to be additional work done to fit them in within the constraint of the already adopted maximum tax rate.
Finally a special public meeting is held where a public hearing is held and the budget for the next fiscal year is adopted.
Almost fifty hours of public meetings have occurred by now to build this budget, beginning with the goal setting sessions in the fall. Most of these meetings are televised and archived on the cityofdubuque.org website for anyone to view. The uninformed frequently complain that our processes are not transparent. I am convinced by research and experience that there is no more transparent process in any other city’s budgeting endeavors.
Most of the proposals coming from the City Manager over the next several months are to initiate projects or policy changes to implement the budget. It should not come as any surprise to anyone that the City Council almost always votes to support initiatives that were born in our goal setting process months ago.
Of course there are other issues that come to the City Council for action based on unanticipated concerns, or changes in state or federal law. Grant opportunities sometimes arise and priorities need to be changed. A recent example was the RAISE grant that the city won to build an overpass across the railroad tracks on East 14th St. It required some considerable matching funds from the city. The Canadian Pacific and the Norfolk Southern Railroads had merged and are telling us that the number and the length of trains would double in the next few years due to that merger. A midyear re-prioritization of funds was needed and the City Council determined that this new condition would create a more pressing need than the implementation of the East West Corridor improvements so funds were reallocated. We will re-budget for those roundabouts in the future and hopefully this grant awarded under the previous federal administration will be released soon.
Our City Manager is very good at doing what he is told. His recommendations come from our previous direction. He is the best in the business and other cities recognize that. We do too.