Funding Community Priorities

The budget is built on community and City Council priorities. We asked the community to help prioritize seven community goals: economic health, environmental health, neighborhood livability, safety, cultural and recreational opportunities, transportation, and high performing government. Feedback collected through the Citizen Survey, public meetings, and online tools shows that safety, transportation, and economic health are high priorities. As a result, the 2010-2011 City Manager’s Recommended Budget funds:

• Police and fire services at the same level as 2009. Public safety expenses make up 50 percent of the General Fund, which means further reductions in other areas.
• Key transportation services such as snow removal. However, because of significant revenue declines in both the General Fund and the Transportation Fund, we were unable to fund transportation to the same level of years past.
• Advance Metering Infrastructure (AMI), commonly know as smart meters, to help us meet our Climate Action Plan goals.
• City Plan and the Transportation Master Plan updates, funded with the prudent use of reserves to cover this one-time expense.

The Budget also includes several cost containment strategies including:

• Reorganization to streamline staff.
• No merit-based pay increases for City employees in 2010.
• Reduced travel and training across all departments.

Operating Efficiently

Finding efficiencies has been a common theme in City budgets since 2005, when the City cut nearly $15 million of planned and budgeted expenditures from the General Fund and eliminated more than 100 City jobs.

Those cuts positioned the City well for the current economic situation; however, further reductions are necessary. In 2009, we cut an additional $8 million to address declining revenues. Among other actions, we eliminated nearly 50 vacant positions and delayed several neighborhood street resurfacing projects.

We have tried to minimize impacts to the public, yet the 2010-11 Budget will include some service reductions.

Community Feedback

As the Mayor and City Council consider the budget, they are looking for community input. Starting Sept. 4, visit fcgov.com/yourvoice to offer your opinions, or attend a Public Hearing listed below.

Key Dates

All meetings take place at City Hall, 300 Laporte Ave. and start at 6 p.m. Attend in person, watch live on cable channel 14 or online at fcgov.com/cable14.

• Sept. 8 Council Work Session – Presentations and discussion: Economic Health, Neighborhood Livability, Cultural and Recreational Opportunities
• Sept. 15 Council Meeting – Budget Public Hearing
• Sept. 22 Council Work Session – Presentations and discussion: Safe Community, Environmental Health
• Sept. 29 Council Work Session – Presentations and discussion: Transportation, High Performing Government
• Oct. 6 Council Meeting – Budget Public Hearing
• Oct. 13 Council Work Session – General discussion
• Oct. 20 Council Meeting – First Reading of Budget Appropriations
• Nov. 3 Council Meeting – Second Reading of Budget Appropriations

Introducing Open Book, a new, easily-accessible and searchable online tool that provides detailed information about how the City spends money.

What is Open Book?

Open Book is an online spending transparency database that allows you to access all City spending records according to specific search terms. You can find it at fcgov.com/openbook.

Why create this tool?

The City of Fort Collins is committed to being an open, data-driven organization. We believe that local government should be accountable for our spending down to the very last penny. The City of Fort Collins is among the first in the nation to offer this level of transparency and this level of accessibility.

What type of information can I access?

Open Book includes data from the City of Fort Collins, Poudre Fire Authority, the Downtown Development Authority, and the Poudre River Public Library District. It includes all expenditures, except for information restricted by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) or other confidential information. It includes expenses paid directly to vendors as well as those made with a City credit card.

Will salary information be included?

Yes. City employee earnings will be listed by position title and department. Information will be based on the previous year and will include salaries, overtime, bonuses and other one-time earnings.

How detailed is the information?

You can search expenses by department, by expense type, by date, or by vendor. However, Open Book doesn’t always clearly define what specific program or service those expenses support. For example, you might find a $200 expense for a restaurant; you can see the date and department, but what you might not see is that the $200 was used to cater dinner for a public event. Because the information in Open Book is automatically pulled from our purchasing records, it provides great detail on the individual expense but it might not provide context for the purchase.

What if I have questions?

Simply click on the “Questions/comments” link and fill out the online forms; we’ll provide you with a complete response within two weeks.

Will the information be current?

Currently, you can access data from Jan. 1, 2009 through the present; the database is updated 15 days after the end of each month with the previous month’s data. Open Book will ultimately display two years’ worth of data.