Officials Adapt to New Budget System

Like kids asking for a raise in their allowances, city officials are preparing their budget requests for fiscal 1997-98.

When the budget year starts Oct. 1, the city will initiate “performance-based budgeting” and departments will have to set goals for themselves and show how each item in the budget will help meet those goals.

For example, if the Police Department sets a goal of reducing crime by 5%, its budget must explain how hiring 10 new officers would help to do that, Mayor Ralph Bauer said.

“It forces you to examine everything you do,” Bauer said. “If I spend 10% more, do I get a 10% improvement? Or do I get a 1% improvement?”

City officials looked at similar budget models in Phoenix and Tucson, Ariz.; Charlotte, N.C.; and Sunnyvale, Calif.

“You try not to focus on the pencils and papers of the world, but the cost of delivering services,” said Ned Zolma, director of budget and research in Tucson.

Right now, Huntington Beach has a typical line-item budget: A department might request a certain amount for office supplies, for example, without explaining why the purchase was required.

Bauer said the shift may take five to 15 years, and not all services the city provides can be quantified, so quality of life must also be considered.

“After you get done with the numbers, then you have to apply the human equation,” he said. “If not, you have a mindless application of a set of numbers.”

Westminster Finance Director Brian Mayhew said a few other Orange County cities are using or moving toward performance-based budgets, including his own.

It’s a tool that holds officials accountable, he said, and lets them say, “Here’s what you got for your money, public.”