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Fayetteville staff unveil online budget ‘brief’ and interactive OpenGov engagement tool
Summary
City staff demonstrated a new OpenGov “budget and brief” landing page and interactive budget game designed to let residents drill into spending, download reports and submit priorities; staff said contracts remain public records but posting scanned contracts online raises ADA/formatting concerns.
Fayetteville City staff on Tuesday demonstrated a new budget transparency and engagement tool that links a one-page “budget and brief” booklet to an OpenGov portal where residents can view recommended operating and capital budgets, drill into pie charts and download PDF reports. Assistant city manager Jeff Yates and budget analyst Priscilla Zipek said the portal is live and the printed booklet includes a QR code to take residents directly to the landing page.
The tool includes an interactive “budget game” that lets users allocate a hypothetical $100 among city services and submit comments to staff. Priscilla Zipek said the game and saved-report views are intended to make complex line-item data easier to find. "They can click how would you distribute $100 of city funds?" she said, describing how residents can set priorities and add written feedback.
Yates framed the project as part of a broader “public checkbook” vision that would eventually allow the public to see vendor payments and invoice-level spending. He cautioned, however, that the city does not yet publish full contract documents through the portal because of Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and formatting constraints. "Contracts are open record," Yates said; "residents can file a records request to get copies," but making scanned contracts widely available on the website requires further work.
Council members asked whether the portal could support participatory budgeting or make specific contracts (for example, ShotSpotter, Clearview AI, or SoundThinking) visible. Yates said the engagement environment can support prioritization and that staff can explore whether to post more contract details or develop a separate process for posting contract text in accessible formats. The manager’s office said it will work with the city’s MarCom team to make the budget landing page more prominent on the city’s homepage and will distribute QR-code booklets for council members to share with constituents.
Staff encouraged residents and council to use the tool and said staff can build custom saved views to answer frequently asked questions, such as personnel costs by department or public-safety expenditures.
