An earlier start and more public involvement are among the changes that Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott Jr. wants to bring to the city's 2020 budget process.
Last year city directors approved the 2019 budget on Dec. 19, two weeks after a draft budget was presented.
The rush to adopt a balanced budget by the year's end to comply with state statute has led some city directors to call for greater involvement in the process.
City ordinance gives Little Rock's mayor the authority to prepare the city budget for board approval, in collaboration with the city manager and finance director.
Scott, a former banker, said Tuesday that his goal is to pass the 2020 budget in November.
Another session to discuss the 2020 budget will take place at the Little Rock Board of Directors meeting at 4 p.m. Sept. 10. The mayor said the session will be "largely educational."
"It's going to discuss the past, it's going to discuss the 2019 budget amendment, it's going to discuss, well, definitely the first two quarters ... and then how we're projecting the future," Scott said.
Some efforts to look at how the city spends its money are underway. The city has contracted with McConnell & Jones, a Texas-based public accounting firm, to audit spending in several public-facing city departments and divisions.
Scott said the firm, which the city contracted with for $48,500, will help officials see "the balance between return on investment and return on effectiveness" and provide feedback and recommendations to him, finance director Sara Lenehan and City Manager Bruce Moore as they build the budget.
"So many times we may be expanding dollars in a particular area, but how effective are we being with those dollars?" the mayor asked.
The firm will look at housing and neighborhood programs, parks and recreation, the Little Rock Zoo, community programs, planning and the building services division of the Public Works Department, said Little Rock intergovernmental relations manager Emily Cox.
Stephanie Jackson, Scott's communications director, said in an email Friday that the administration is "exhausting all options" in looking at fiscal responsibility, including reviewing spending on technology and telecommunications, evaluating all current contracts and asking department directors to outline their budgetary priorities.
Other procedural changes are in the works as well.
In past years, city staff have taken part in daylong program inventory sessions where department heads would list their budget requests for the coming year. Lenehan said those sessions will be scrapped.
Instead, the city will ask department heads to categorize their desires as either necessities or aspirations, and engage the public "fairly regularly" with sessions at community centers, beginning in late September or early October, Lenehan said.
Scott has said that participatory budgeting, a process that allows community members to decide how part of a public budget will be spent, is also on the table.
Other Southern cities that have ventured into participatory budgeting for the first time this year include Durham, N.C., and Jackson, Miss., according to news reports.
Jackson said Little Rock is working on establishing the format it will use and that more details will be available soon.
Metro on 09/01/2019