Get Game On Budget City Council: BENN

For dysfunctional organizations, the budget is prepared with a single goal in mind.

The City of Ottawa is one of those dysfunctional organization. Its goal is to reach a prescribed budget increase. In this year’s case, it is 3.75 per cent.

The goal is increasing the amount to be spent based on a predetermined rate of increase of property-taxes. No reference to what the priorities should be. No clear, measurable objectives to achieve. No guidance on identifying whether a program is necessary.

The result for dysfunctional organizations is invariably a free-for-all of competing demands for funding. A budget developed by departmental managers deciding what is important – to them. A budget that is reverse engineered in a financial sense to fit the increased funding directive. A budget that might not reflect the most likely expenditures required for a key service to be effective. Rather the budget is built with the selective use of priorities to solve the equation but with no requirement that anything of those priorities be supported with facts.

Why? Because this is how they have always done it.

That is what Mayor Mark Sutcliffe is basing his re-election prospects on and those of his colleagues around the council chamber. That’s the process that led to the depletion of operating reserves over the course of the last decade. It’s the  process that created the current year’s budget. The one that is not balanced by $36 million. Not balanced, which is illegal. The budget that staff not so artfully danced around in a recent budget update by referring specifically to the $1.3-million shortfall for the areas that they had some degree of influence over, while making just a cursory reference to the $36-million fiction they proposed at council’s request.

Setting operating priorities is the responsibility of council, not staff. It might lead to meaningful public debate. It might even lead to vigorous disagreements. Who knows, some councillors might even be capable of stringing together some cogent thoughts about why the priorities that they are espousing are important.  All of which are key elements of a healthy democratic process. So, as council heads into this process for what will be the last budget for this group, let’s see whether anyone who populates the council chamber is prepared to demand that the budget be set in a less dysfunctional manner.

Council should start by identifying what they consider to be must-haves in contrast with the nice-to-haves from the why-are-we-funding-this-at-all. Prioritize the must-haves. Rank the nice-to-haves. Provide guidance for staff to identify programs or services that are no longer necessary by setting out concisely what criteria staff are to use.  Require staff to justify why they have overridden council on specific programs.

Instructions should be specific. Set out a clear description of how success will be measured. Especially for must-have services. For example, on public transit ridership increases to X million fares by September 30, 2026.

When it comes to the why-are-we-funding-this, the over-reaching factor should be “is this program required by statute”.  Councillors and residents might be astounded by how many programs the city offers that are either outside the its area of responsibility, or duplications of programs offered by another level of government or non-government organizations. Another criteria high on the list of why-are-we-doing-this is effectiveness. Does the program address a current problem? Does the program actually solve or reduce the problem? That implies that there are meaningful metrics, and that the metrics are being measured. If staff has not been measuring the effectiveness of the program, why are they doing it aside from job preservation? Value for money is not just a philosophical concept.

Let’s add a directive from council to rebuild the depleted operating reserves by XX million dollars.

In short, council must up its game. Start the process of changing the dysfunctional culture that permeates city hall to that of a mature organization. One that demonstrates on a daily basis that it understands what the priorities are. One that makes the difficult decisions on where to spend money and where not to spend money.

Ron Benn, a finance executive, has been a member of the Centrepointe Community Association for the better part of three decades.

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