Lynnwood City Council candidates Chris Frizzell and Benjamin Goodwin recently sent statements about their approaches to writing and considering a city budget.
Frizzell will challenge incumbent Goodwin in the Nov. 3 general election.
The two are running for one of four Lynnwood Council positions on the November ballot.
Here are Frizzell’s and Goodwin’s budget statements (in the order their names will appear on the ballot and in the voters’ pamphlet):
Lynnwood City Council Position 5:
Chris Frizzell: I believe that the most important factor in setting a city budget is the ability to forecast the future based on historical performance and adapting that performance to project future goals. To that end, the ability to understand and measure past expectations and past measurable results is of deep significance. As we look to the past and understand how the budget has aligned (or not aligned) to actual income and spending, we can more effectively set a budget for the future.
The City of Lynnwood has recently adopted a new method of budgeting called “Budgeting for Outcomes”. This promises to be a very effective tool for measuring expectations and results based upon the goals that are set for the outcomes expected. I look forward to using that to bring transparency to the budgeting process. During the next number of budgeting cycles, this will become more and more advantageous as we align tax dollars to achieve the goals set by our citizens, council and mayor.
As an accountant for 35 years, budgeting and financial analysis are key areas of interest for me as we move forward to make Lynnwood a great deal more.
Benjamin Goodwin: Outlined below are my five “most important” factors, or steps, for setting a city budget; the first three holding slightly more weight than the last two:
1. Recognize: As a general starting point, and to keep from overspending, it is imperative to recognize what resources are available (one time income, residual income, etc.)
2. Prioritize: As a separate step to recognizing available resources, we need to prioritize services that we offer to our citizens and work to base our expenditures on those priorities.
3. Precision: When we identify priorities, we need to more precisely evaluate and score the services, then look at how we offer them to the citizens of Lynnwood.
4. Allocation: Resource allocation is dependent on recognizing available resources and evaluating and prioritizing precisely where we are going to allocate those resources. We should not allocate resources until we have completed the previous three steps; following this ensures we don’t budget based on spending.
5. Accountability: We need to account for results. In the case of Lynnwood we can do this by implementation of the LEAN strategies and recognizing efficiencies and innovation.
The process of Budgeting for Outcomes, when incorporated into our budgeting process correctly, will allow us to create a budget for our city that spends what we need, where we need it; all while allocating resources within our means.
Evan Smith can be reached at schsmith@frontier.com.
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