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San Dimas council debates a $9,000 budget-engagement tool; votes to gather more information before purchase
Summary
Staff proposed a $9,000-per-year subscription to a web-based 'Balancing Act' budget-simulation tool to increase public engagement. Council members questioned likely participation, setup and marketing costs and requested staff to consult peer cities and return with a pilot plan; no procurement was approved that night.
Management Services Director Michael O’Brien presented a proposal for the city to subscribe to a web-based budget-simulation and public-engagement platform (Balancing Act suite) at $9,000 per year, arguing it would make the budget tradeoffs more accessible to residents and provide community input on discretionary spending.
O’Brien said purchasing the suite at $9,000 would free $6,000 of a $15,000 budgeted appropriation and demonstrated how users could add or remove program units (for example, deputies or homelessness funding) and submit prioritized choices that staff could aggregate for council consideration. O’Brien and staff referenced the City of Corona and Roseville as local examples.
Several council members said they were sympathetic to the idea of increased engagement but doubted the tool’s value relative to cost and staff time to set it up and market it. Councilmember Weber questioned whether the city would get meaningful participation and whether the results would be sufficiently representative or actionable: "I have a hard time seeing how a person who doesn't really have context for what each of these budget items mean playing around submitting a budget ... would be valuable," he said.
Councilmembers asked staff to call peers that have implemented similar tools, to prepare a study-session demo and to return with a proposal that shows setup, marketing and the kinds of actionable outputs the city could expect. The council did not approve procurement at the meeting; staff will research pilot options and report back.
