Budget Reform

By Augusto Bisani

Although we would like to maintain all our services to our customers, we can not jeopardize the ability to deliver those most vital to them.

There are fifteen City Council members; they would be our Board of Directors. The Mayor would be the President & CEO. The residents of the City are the Stockholders.

Within our Company there are approximately thirty eight departments. Of them, ten departments provide core functions. Each department has various levels of Management, from General Managers, Department Heads, Supervisors and rank and file personnel.

Each Department is required to submit a Budget and once all Departmental Budgets are received we total it all up and come up with a figure needed to meet the Budgets presented by the Departments.

In the event the revenues fall short of our Budget, the City ends up with a Budget Deficit which must be resolved.

Traditionally there are two methods used to resolve the deficit, raise Taxes and Fees and cut services. Either way, the Stockholders pay.

The current Budget Deficit for Los Angeles is stated to be 65 million dollars. The Board of Directors and CEO are engaged in the process of cutting services and personnel. Remember each employee not available to do their job, is a loss of service to you.

The next Budget Deficit will be closer to four hundred million dollars.

In my company as in many others we have Prioritized Budgeting. After we established which of our services are core and vital to our customers, we are in a better position to allocate the funding. The funding is based on current revenue.

Although we would like to maintain all our services to our customers, we can not jeopardize the ability to deliver those most vital to them.

Under the current system, the Mayor has order an across the board percentage of budget cuts. This is reactive and has caused the loss of services in those departments most vital.

Many services less vital and being reduced at the same level as those most vital. One example the city is now contending with is in the Los Angeles Police Department. The Department as a whole was instructed to cut their budget by a certain percent. This was accomplished by cutting hundreds of Civilian Employees. The services they provided still needed to be done, so Sworn Officers were transferred from patrol duties and are now conducting the duties of Civilian Employees. The cost to hire and train an LAPD is about $150,000.00. The loss to the city both in public safety and fund is clear.

In addition to the manner in which we set the budget, we must have an ongoing training and performance evaluation process for our managers and supervisors. Far too often employees are in positions of authority without the latest and vital information on how to conduct and over see their departments functions.