Budget committee adopts working budget priority rubric, schedules Nov. 14 workshop

The Jackson City Budget Committee voted to accept a budget-priority matrix (rubric) as a working document and scheduled a workshop for Friday, Nov. 14, from 10 a.m. to noon to walk committee members and department heads through examples.

Paul, a committee member who led discussion of the rubric and calendar, said the tool is intended to produce a common framework to prioritize capital and operational requests and to help staff and elected members understand relative priority across many competing projects. The committee discussed running "dry runs" with department heads so those offices can practice scoring and avoid last-minute submissions; staff noted some departments historically submit materials on short notice.

Nathan and Ron described how the rubric will be used at a summary or programmatic level rather than as a line-by-line scoring exercise, and they said Nathan's office will normalize scores where departments self-score too highly. The group discussed integrating the rubric into Tyler if feasible, but members agreed using an Excel-based dry run is acceptable initially.

Members agreed to use lettered tiers (A/B/C) rather than numbered tiers to avoid confusion and to normalize scoring across departments. The workshop was placed on the committee's calendars and staff will circulate examples and the most recent models ahead of the November session.