Council retreat dives into Poulsbo's biennial budget, public hearings and RCW deadlines

Deb Borer, the city's finance lead, outlined Poulsbo's biennial budgeting approach and timeline at the retreat and explained how the 20‑year comprehensive plan and 6‑year capital facilities plan feed project prioritization. She said the city delegates the biennial appropriation into one‑year pockets to maintain cash‑flow and better match software and accounting systems. "As you know, the city, operates under a biennial budget process, and that is a 2 year budget, but the city has, delegates each 1 of those years into separate pockets," she said.

Deb explained statutory milestones: departments prepare budgets through July/August; the mayor issues the preliminary budget (with narrative and performance measures); the council holds at least one revenue public hearing and additional public hearings on departmental budgets; the preliminary levy submission to the county treasurer and related ordinance actions must be done on the schedule required by state law, and the city must adopt a final budget before Dec. 31. She also walked through fund‑level adoption, mid‑biennium amendments, and the state's BARS accounting structure that constrains fund uses. The review emphasized that the council's role is policy direction and fund‑level adoption while the mayor executes day‑to‑day implementation.