O.C. Supervisors Agree to Clarify Budget Document : Government: Board unanimously votes to give more information on expenditures and spending trends. Officials hope change will increase public participation.

The Orange County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday endorsed plans to dramatically change its budget presentation after two board newcomers said the financial document was nearly impossible to understand.

Supervisors Marian Bergeson and Jim Silva complained that the county’s thick budget document gives lump-sum spending for each agency but doesn’t offer enough details. The budget barely explains where the money is going, they said.

The board voted 5 to 0 to endorse the pair’s suggestions, which call for a variety of funding details, including: breakdowns on county employee salaries, benefits and positions; a narrative explanation and spending details about the county’s more than 400 programs; charts to compare future and past fiscal year spending; and performance goals.

“We need to know if we’re getting our money’s worth,” said Silva, who noted that the change could help increase public participation in this critical aspect of county government and would be a key step toward restructuring. “It’s time to change the way we do business.”

“Believe it or not, even the state budget is more understandable than this,” said Bergeson, a former state legislator. “We need to move our budget into the 21st Century.”

The proposal also calls for challenging county employees to be more efficient and rewarding them for outstanding efforts. Bergeson said rewarding workers for completing tasks under budget and ahead of schedule could be one way of improving efficiency. Currently, there is no incentive to do so, she said.

In years past, others have also complained about the cumbersome budget process that seemingly makes sense to only a handful of the county’s bureaucrats.

Tim Shaw of the Orange County Partnership for Responsible Public Policy said he supports the change, especially after spending the last few days trying to figure out the county’s budget.

“It’s really unwieldy,” he said, adding that he’s not the only one who thinks so. In recent days, he said, he contacted county officials in various departments for help dissecting the budget document.

Those he reached told him not to bother; the inches-thick workbook was “completely useless.” Shaw’s comments were greeted by laughs and sympathetic smiles from Silva and Bergeson.