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Council committee reviews draft questions for 2025–26 biennial budget feedback survey
Summary
Deputy Finance Director Harita Nara and finance planning manager Haley Zircher briefed the committee on a proposed council survey to gather post‑budget feedback for the 2025–26 biennium; council members asked for additional topics and recommended an open-ended question and a possible follow-up study session.
Deputy Finance Director Harita Nara and Finance Planning Manager Haley Zircher briefed the Finance, Administration and Communications Committee Feb. 11 on draft questions for a council survey to capture feedback on the 2025–26 biennial budget process.
Nara said the survey is part of the standard biennial review conducted after a budget is approved. The draft questions cover budget pre-work (calendar and forecast overviews), community engagement, the “40-page” budget summary document, the preliminary budget book and the overall facilitation of budget deliberations. The staff team plans to work with communications on a SurveyMonkey or Google Form distribution and to bring consolidated results back to FAC for review.
Council members recommended additions and process changes. The council president suggested sending the draft survey to gather initial feedback, collating responses, and then scheduling a study session or debrief if the consolidated responses indicate a need for a deeper discussion. The president also recommended including an open-ended question at the end of the survey to capture items not covered by fixed questions.
Council Member Stewart asked that the survey explicitly address coordination with subcommittees, public communications about the budget process, review of financial policies and monitoring and evaluation of budget outcomes through the biennium. Nara agreed to accept email recommendations from council members and to consolidate them into the survey questions. Staff said they will return to FAC with final results once the survey is completed.
No formal committee action was recorded during the briefing; staff requested written recommendations from council members and described plans for a follow-up report to FAC.
