Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Budget topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Fountain Valley staff outline shift to biennial budget, estimate eight weeks saved over two-year cycle
Summary
Finance Director Ryan Smith presented a plan to adopt two one-year budgets at once (a 2-year spending plan), estimating about eight weeks of staff time saved in the second year and arguing the change would promote longer-range planning and departmental efficiencies for a city of Fountain Valleys size.
Finance Director Ryan Smith told the City Council on March 18 that staff are exploring a switch from an annual to a biennial budget process in which the city would adopt two individual year budgets at the same time as a single two-year spending plan.
Smith said the model the city is considering would keep separate appropriations for each year so funds would not transfer between fiscal years without council approval. He estimated the first years work would remain roughly the same as the annual process (about 25 weeks), while processes in the second year would require about 17 weeks or roughly eight weeks less than preparing two separate annual budgets. "Setting up our templates one time and doing it two years saves a lot more time," Smith said.
The proposal is pitched as a fit for cities Fountain Valleys size and service level, where staff believe the back-office and department-level efficiencies from fewer budget cycles would be meaningful. Smith cautioned that very large or complex jurisdictions, or agencies that rely heavily on one-year state or federal appropriations, typically dont gain the same advantages.
Council members pressed staff on timing and practical impacts. One council member asked whether the time savings translate to direct dollar savings; Smith said the benefit is principally staff time reallocated to other projects, and declined to offer a definitive dollar figure without further analysis. Vice Mayor Kenny performed a rough back-of-envelope calculation, suggesting that 320 staff hours at an illustrative $100-per-hour rate could equate to about $32,000 per staff position if all hours were monetized.
Council member Aguayntes and others asked about aligning the two-year cycle with election years and employment contracts; staff said the preferred sequencing would adopt budgets in odd-numbered years so newly elected councils would not be stuck partway through an earlier councils adopted budget, and noted personnel contract timing would need a human-resources review.
Next steps: staff asked for council direction on transitioning the upcoming cycle to a two-year plan and said they would return with more detail on calendar options, potential fiscal analysis of dollar savings, and any necessary HR or contract adjustments.
