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Westminster council hears staff presentation on budget approaches, seeks more metrics and public engagement
Summary
City staff outlined best-practice budget approaches and proposed process changes for the 2026 budget. Councilors asked for clearer performance metrics, explanations of staffing changes and a public engagement plan including a proposed May workshop.
City staff presented an overview of municipal budget approaches and sought council direction on elements to include in preparation of the 2026 budget.
"A budget really is an allocation of scarce resources," Assistant City Manager Chris Lindsey told the City Council on Jan. 13, explaining why staff reviewed multiple development approaches including line-item, zero-based, priority-based and budgeting for outcomes. Policy and Budget Administrator Erin Ferriter summarized planned process changes including a community request follow-up and a city performance dashboard.
Lindsey said Westminster currently uses a "modified line-item" approach while incorporating programmatic tracking and some capital planning scoring techniques. He described strengths and weaknesses of other models: zero-based budgeting requires…
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