2018 Annual Report of the Personnel and Finance Committee

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Sou Tl �, yo u � � o r x 1865 Karen White At Large Council Member It is good to have the section of budget a few days ahead. I am not going through the entire budget at one time, so I don't need the entire thing at once. I think we have addressed this verbally in the past, but the presentations are filled with too much fluff. We need to get right into the numbers, dollars and cents because the process is so truncated. I think IT did a great job of breaking their budget down and made terrific use of graphs and other visuals. Understanding that the budget is a working document, I believe that we received information in a fairly timely fashion. That being said, I would still like to have the full budget up front (with the understanding that it can and will change throughout the process) to give the individual department budgets context. I'd like to reiterate that this is too much information to digest in a few weeks and we should have some sort of on- going (perhaps quarterly) meetings on the budget to ensure that the council and the public have a better grasp. I also think this will allow us to ask more questions in a public forum so that it doesn't seem "rushed" or "rubber stamped" by the public. As far as number of hearings, I wouldn't put a cap on it just because this is so important to what we do. Again, as long as they are full of quality information and there is time for questions and dialogue instead of a two- hour show and tell session. Council's Involvement - all council members need to attend the budget committee meetings. There should be a last call for changes or concerns from council members two weeks before we vote, so council and the administration have time to review and look for changes and make any changes public. 2019 Budget Items in support of neighborhoods and community- this year was good support. 227 W.Jefferson Blvd.Rm.441 Office: (574)235-9321 FAX: (574)520-5018 County-City Building South Bend,IN Voicemail: (574)235-5985 TDD: (574)235-5567 46601- 1830 Work Office: (574)520-4477 Email:KWHITE@SOUTHBENDIN.GOV