New members press for digital budgets and transparency as committee reflects on last year’s contentious process

Committee members prioritized making budget materials easier for both the committee and the public to use, pressing to obtain Excel versions of current and past budgets and to publish readable summaries and decoder sheets for account codes. Jen recommended using citizenportal.ai to obtain transcripts and chaptered agenda items for faster review; several members supported posting digital files and better linking budget data on the district site.

Members discussed the value of multi-year (six-year) data for trend analysis and suggested that administration-provided, 'blessed' files (official Excel exports) be used rather than committee-created spreadsheets. The chair committed to request an electronic copy of the current budget and prior years from Matt and to circulate the materials.

The meeting also featured an extended, heated committee-comment period in which one member sharply criticized the committee’s performance last year — saying the group “failed” to produce a budget the public would accept — and urged more collaboration and urgency. Other members responded that the default budget had increased substantially and that partisan tactics and audience pressure had complicated deliberations last season; newer members said they want to focus on material issues that "move the needle" and avoid getting bogged down in peripheral details.

Members agreed to schedule three department-review meetings to avoid overly long single sessions, discuss liaison-team assignments in October, and to consider a short work session after a department presentation while the material is fresh. The chair emphasized that the committee's role (setting the operating number for deliberative session) must be data-driven and respectful, and pledged to circulate minutes, training materials and redlined policy edits ahead of future meetings.