This past fall, my administration completed our third executive budget. Much has been learned over the last three years, through an unprecedented global pandemic, enormous fiscal challenges, and record amounts of federal funding. I am proud of the work my team has done this year, especially considering the challenge of losing our experienced comptroller right at the beginning of the budget process. However, I remain concerned about the lack of transparency from City Council, and misleading comments published in the newspaper about the executive budget that my team and I put together.
It is helpful to explain the often-opaque budget process to the public. The budget team starts putting together the budget in July, asking department heads to submit all budget requests by the end of that month. Then, our budget team spends two months crafting the overall executive budget, taking into account department requests, revenue projections, and other miscellaneous spending. Overall, we are conservative in revenue projections and expenditures. Our goal being to give the City a financial cushion into the next year. During my administration, this practice has taken the city from the brink of bankruptcy to one of the best fiscal positions in decades.
As required by our City Charter, I present my Executive Budget by October 8th of each year, with copies made available to the City Council, department heads, the media, and the public via hard copies and our website. The City Council then has over a month and half to review the budget and to submit amendments for votes by the end of November. This allows Council to ask questions of department heads, receive clarifications on line items, and give additional eyes to catch any small mistakes. It is expected Council will at least have some amendments, especially as my team starts putting together the budget in the middle of the year, where we have an incomplete view of how the current fiscal year will shake out.
Council is, by City Charter, supposed to submit proposed amendments by November 15th, over a month after my budget presentation. In each of my three years as Mayor, Council has never submitted budget amendments by that date, instead waiting to only propose amendments on the floor, with little to no conversation with my administration. The public, departments, and council members themselves have the right to see and discuss the changes to the executive budget, not be forced to make split second decisions from the floor based on the recommendation of one council member.
This year, in particular, my administration, department heads, and Council members themselves did not see proposed amendments until one hour before the vote. This does not include members of the media or the public themselves, with those only hearing about the proposed amendments for the first time as Council was voting on them. This has created a narrative the administration made massive mistakes in the budget, when the truth is the vast majority of the 27 amendments were policy and funding level changes, not mistakes found.
Our team spent hundreds of painstaking hours to estimate costs, expenditures, and future projections to develop a nearly $40 million budget. To be clear, there are some changes to projections as the year progresses, but when certain council members criticize the budget as “fixing mistakes” it diminishes the hard, and dedicated work of our staff.
Together, we are working towards a better Jamestown, which is why, in the spirit of collaboration, I offered Council to join me to discuss the issues, amendments, and any potential vetoes before votes are had. Although some council members took me up on the offer, the majority have not, and such refusal to engage in good faith with the administration is not in the best interest of Jamestown.
At the end of the day, I campaigned on transparency in city government, and have worked hard to make the city more accessible for everyone. We must hold council to the same standard. Last minute amendments have a place as emergency fixes; but, by proposing amendments the same day they are voted on is a disservice to not only Jamestown’s residents, but council itself. It is not transparent, and intentional or not, does not allow for open and meaningful discourse about these items. I strongly encourage the public to contact their representatives to ask for a more transparent, open, and collaborative process in the future.
Eddie Sundquist is the mayor of Jamestown.
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