 This is our special called budget workshop led by deputy city manager Mark McDaniel, and I will turn things over to him Thank you, mayor. I'm gonna turn over to Christiane just a moment, but I wanted to say some introductory remarks So We talked to you all about having some many budget work sessions Early on in the process as opposed to waiting until the proposed budget comes out And so that's that's what this is all about this first one though is going to really talk more about How we put the budget together so that everybody starting from the same point and how we do this So we're going to get a little bit into the weeds about our process And then we're also going to take you through a an example of a department that we're putting through the party based budgeting right now environmental services Future workshops in the one hour that we'll try to schedule. We'll do a deeper dive on individual other individual departments But you're going to get see just kind of how the You know sausage is made a little bit in terms of how we put the budget together We have three of these already scheduled. We will schedule more But we only have those three schedules so far so stay tuned on the additional Budget sessions and also if there's particular departments that you want to go, you know deeper in in terms of understanding Let us know what those departments are We make sure that we schedule them because we've got 26 departments And I think it's going to be hard to fit all of those in but we were sure want to fit those in that you all want to see the Most so with that I'll turn over to Christian Christian Thank You mark and it's Christian's getting started just a reminder. This is something new We're doing this year out of response for Management is doing out of response to our comments after last budget. So use these wisely I know that we all get tired at meetings But use the hour and then also provide them feedback as mark just asked for because of these will only be as good as we make them Christian. Thank you. Yes, you took the words right out of my mouth both of you So we know I want to acknowledge. I know it's been a long day Especially for some people who have been here since the EMS meeting this morning, but we hope this can be helpful Speaking on behalf of the lab We are really excited for your excitement in engaging more robustly and earlier in the process And so these work sessions are a response to that and like the mayor said They can evolve and develop as needed in order to make them most helpful to you Today's agenda is fairly light and consumable and mark headed on the head You've recently seen fiscal health information as part of the council retreat. So we're not necessarily starting from there But because we're starting to share earlier with you and we're still very early in the budget process today's agenda is a hybrid of like practical foundational knowledge and Then sort of the peak at something newer with regard to PBB, which those are, you know newer initiatives. So with that I'm gonna quickly go over the budget calendar, which I think we're only taking it through June here But I want to share some of the work that's been done so far So we'll talk a little bit in a few minutes about what prior your commitments are some of you already familiar with that term But the departments have been working on prior your commitments since January and some even before And that's a foundational part of the budget process that again will all define in just a few minutes But ongoing works been happening since January and February and then on the priority-based budgeting side We did a kickoff earlier than our typical budget kickoff because there's a lot of again foundational work That has to be done with that new initiative and so then last month we began to load budget information into Cuesta, which is our budgeting system and continued the PBB work and Also last month, which is just kind of a funny thing as far as being in the weeds about what budgets doing We did a budget kickoff like usual and we introduced this new thing that was fun called the budget fair and so in the budget fair We did a science fair theme because that's how cheesy we are in the lab And we wore lab coats and so this the fair the event was sort of meant to respond to the varying levels of information That departments need when they're kicking off budget So some people really need a deep dive into certain subjects and some kind of have their fiscal staff and their stuff together And so people could spend as much time as they wanted sort of learning about Revenue or allocations or prior your commitments. We also included the other parts of the lab So we had comp plan there like some of the planning initiatives So anyway, I just wanted to share a few pictures because the staff really had fun with the with the budget fair And then David did his inspiring normal kickoff comments, too So now we're in April. Yeah, it was I'll take my $20 So then in April now we are officially budget developing So right now a budget, you know departments are are entering budgets into questica And so the analysts are working hard to review that work as it's happening And then on the PBB side, we're in the middle of peer review Which we'll talk about later in the presentation and so over the next couple of months We only go through June on this calendar and we'll continue to roll forward with our with our work sessions as we go But budgets are due from the departments in May Here remember the exact same but soon in May And then we'll begin to figure out how to overlay We're starting we're already figuring it out. We'll begin overlaying a priority-based budgeting Scoring into sort of the existing budget system. And then in June we have a budget blitz Which is sort of like a three-day marathon of hearing about the department budget requests and Start to talk about decision packages. So Not like in years past. We'll be visiting with you throughout this process instead of starting to visit with you in August So you'll see earlier previews of a lot of this through these work sessions Christiane before you move from that slide if I can ask a question I know in the past this council has expressed some concern about making sure that we get community input Prior to any finalization of those budget considerations. Is that incorporated in this chart that we're looking at? So, I know it's not specifically called out But we do we are doing earlier engagement this year and maybe maybe at the end of today We can talk a little bit about the fiscal year 25 budget engagement schedule. That'd be okay. I'm looking at amethyst and Michelle Yes, they say okay. Is that all right? Can we talk about engagement? Yeah, that's fine. Yeah, as long as it's flushed out later Yeah, great Okay So development of target budgets So that the city has traditionally engaged in target-based budgeting and we're still doing that So providing departments of framework in which to build their budget is a structured and reasonable way to start the process and it ensures that any additions to the budget are made through a transparent process in this city We use decision packages. So People meet their target budget and then if they want to exceed that target. They have to explain why right? So in order to build the target we start from This is okay. I want to shout out to one of my budget analysts for thinking of this cake analogy that you're gonna see I really like it A target budget is predetermined from the prior year budget So fiscal year 25 budget is built from the fiscal year 24 adopted budget And then there are several stages of adjustment that happens and this just occurred in March So these are the targets that that departments are working from now So stage one is the adopted budget Fiscal year 24 budget and we'll look at it in a second, but that's the starting point for every operating department Next one-time costs one-time costs are Expenses that were incurred in the year, but we can take them out. They don't require any more funding So typically this happens when people get decision packages that maybe have startup costs Start up capital computers cars and then sometimes we I'm looking at some more examples In fiscal year 24, you know, we had an extra fire trainee class like that's been backed out So things like that that are one time and then can be reduced and so from fiscal year 24 to 25 There were about is almost 10 million 10 million dollars in one-time expenses that we backed out between the adopted budget stage and Then this one-time cost stage Okay The third stage is prior your commitments, which I mentioned on the budget calendar So these are budget items that impact a fiscal year budget because of things we've agreed to in the past The best example of these are police and fire contracts So when there are scheduled salary increases, those are built in as prior your commitments You also think you see things like CPI increases for the zoo or for the you know for botanic gardens or solid waste like things that are CPI increases that we know are coming those then get added back in so adopted budget less one-time costs plus prior your commitments And I think I don't know if this was the first year, but it was certainly the first year in a while That we solicited prior your commitments from departments instead of just we have our own list But we also solicited from departments to ensure that we weren't missing anything It didn't get surprised later in the process because one of the things that's happened in the past is we've seen decision packages from Departments saying like hey, this was supposed to be a prior your commitment and you guys missed it So we tried to be a little more collaborative up front I believe prior your commitments for FY 25 Or they totaled forty five million dollars in the general fund the big drivers of those are police meet and confer The CBA and pay for performance. Those are a couple of the top drivers there And then we go into cost allocations Where we allocate costs out to the departments to identify, you know, sort of the total cost of services There are various internal departments who allocate their costs like IT property management and we do an admin cost allocation And so in the general fund we typically hold departments harmless for those kinds of allocations unless they can be directly responsible for them And so this year allocations to the general fund seven point two million addition to the target and then Finally the cake topper salary and benefit projections So this is when we we solicit HR for any upcoming potential increases like health insurance sort of the drivers pay for performance Retirement so for instance this year's budget has a five percent sort of placeholder in the target for health insurance And a four percent placeholder for a pay for performance. So those are already added into departments target budgets And that's what makes the cake. So Adopted budget less one-time cost plus prior your commitments allocations that we're holding people harmless for and salary and benefit placeholder projections And this is how it looks currently. So fiscal year 24 adopted budget. This is general fund This is the billion 13 number at the bottom fiscal year 25 target as of right now and again, we're sharing early and sometimes the hazard of sharing early is you know, there could be a couple of tweaks here and there but The fiscal year 25 target budget is a billion 48 sounds a billion 49 so a three and a half percent increase across the board And if you're wondering what you might be why neighborhood services is going down I also wondered the same thing when I pulled this data and it's a mistake. So I'll fix it What happened that the priority repair program that we increased last year was loaded as a one-time One-time increase and I don't think it was intended to be one time. So we will fix that So I don't want you to be alarmed But I found that at the last minute and everything else you can kind of see there many questions about drivers We can talk about those but this is where we sit as of right now in April general fund budget development How we when we walk through the cake, this is where we've landed Okay, as part of building the target. We also build the preliminary pay go matrix So as you know pay go financing uses cash for a capital Saves us from paying interest on debt lowers debt. We've talked about pay go extensively I don't think you need a an education there. This is a reminder that pay go seven cents of the fiscal year 24 tax rate allocation In our models now We're assuming four percent growth And these are some of the things that are funded in pay go you've seen these buckets before not every single thing Is listed here, but these are some of the bigger bigger buckets And so in fiscal year 25, we actually have a good forecast here, but this counts for four percent growth But in fiscal year 25, you'll see that the pay go total is Almost 78 million and sort of how it's preliminarily breaking out among the big The big buckets there big departments And we can deep dive any of the capital or pay go stuff in a future work session. I'm sure it's of interest But just wanted to show you how it's how it's loaded in the budget system as we stand today Questions okay, okay, so priority based budgeting. This is the newer preview and Environmental services. Cody has been generous in giving some of his time today to help turn I think turn a concept into something more practical because even for me until lately it's been more conceptual than practical in my brain So priority based budgeting is something that we want to use to augment our traditional You know target based budgeting line item budgeting that I just walked through I think with Target based budgeting like any any budget framework, you know, it has some limitations And one of their primary challenges is that it heavily focuses on inputs and expenditures And growing a base like an already existing base Rather than you know outcomes and results and optimizing resource allocation And so we're trying to knowing that we still need to do some, you know Target based budgeting and line item budgeting, especially from an accounting perspective But trying to um provide a different vantage point or a different lens upon which you can look and make decisions without maybe digging into Line item detail, although you certainly can But really understanding the programs within the city and what it costs to run those programs and how well aligned they are to your priorities So we have nine participating departments this year. We moved from three last year to nine And last year we really only applied priority based budgeting to the decision packages from those three departments But this year we are doing a much more robust work With the nine departments. And so I want to show you a bit of that Yeah, of course Is there a reason why we're only doing nine and not all? Yeah, I mean just truly learning how to implement I think we went from three to nine and we have a pretty good system now And we were still using resource X as a consultant to help with that The goal is to then do a bigger chunk each year for like the next two years. Okay. Thank you Um, so quickly before um lay a little bit of foundation before Cody comes up uh or before he comes over here The uh the first step of priority based budgeting and sort of the biggest push of the rollout Is the design of the program inventory Um a pbb. I'm gonna keep saying pbb pbb program is a new and can be a separate concept from A department's like normal operations or divisions. So what I mean is A department has existing operational programs right and Divisions, but those might not be a one-for-one match to like a pbb program So for example, like a program is what you do. It has to answer the question of what you do. So Let me let me think of an example. That's someone who's not participating finance. Hey, reggie. I'm gonna use finance Um, so finance might have an accounting division or like a treasury division But when you say like treasury like what what is that like? What does it do? So you might say, okay Um a program pbb to measure alignment from like treasury might be payroll processing Like that's the program and so there are many programs within accounting or treasury and that's the way you align them Um, so that's all I mean to say is it's not always like a one-for-one in the way. We're already, you know, organizationally structured um so Actually, I think the challenge was with pbb and program inventory at the beginning is helping departments accurately size their programs And there is a brochure that we use at the budget fair that uses the analogy of pizza And I kind of want to grab it because it's really good Because you guys y'all aren't hungry you already ate so it's fine for me to talk about pizza. Um, so And I'm gonna give you guys this because I really like these brochures that we made. Um So pb program, what do you do? If we're asking the question, how much pizza do we have then how would you answer you would probably say like we have x number of slices You wouldn't say well, we have this many pizza boxes Like that's too big of a baseline of an analysis, right? Like that's too big And you wouldn't say that we have this many pepperonis like that's too small And so programs in pbb represent the slices like what do we do? How many do we have? And so we've been calibrating with departments saying, okay, that's too big Like it's too big to say the courthouse or accounting It's too small to say like oh we file paperwork or we answer the phone or whatever So it's just right to say things like payroll processing or court reporting or you know So it's some of that calibration that's happened have enough front and that's the biggest push I think of pbb implementation. It's it's the hardest upfront Cody will talk a little bit more about what this is practically looked like But once people have a program inventory Then we cost those programs so that we know both the personnel and non personnel Costs for each and then the part we're in the middle of now is program scoring And the departments first score their programs based on a number of criteria And then we go through a peer review and I think at this point I'm gonna let coat I'm gonna let cody talk first to give some Alignment and then I'm gonna go back because I think it'll be more helpful So without further ado, I'm switching to cody's example of what this looks like in application All right. Thank you christian So we wanted to take this approach of this new priority-based budgeting and give you some some Symbols or some understanding of what this looks like from our department's perspective And I will tell you as a department director I was a little hesitant to try this new path forward initially But over time through conversations with the four lab. It's it's been easier to digest So when you look at our department, it's basically three separate funds You've got the environment protection fund at 16.2 million for f y 24 You got the solid waste fund at just over 82 million And you have the general fund at 4.5 And you can see that that's covering consumer health also note to mosquitoes if you see mosquitoes Please reference over to us And we'll you can see the different programs that these different funds take into account But we wanted to take through the priority-based budgeting concept To strategize a different way to sort these and to bring these forward So what we were able to do through that priority of inventory We were able to take our program divisions or our cost centers and try to go one level deeper and identify the 23 Key programs or or structures that we would like to bring forward at this time All of these as an external facing department fall in that community category I'm certainly not going to go through all 23 of these But I picked a couple just to show you an example of how we're looking at each unit as kind of an independent business unit Rather than doing a deep dive So one example is the southeast landfill fill as as just one program Of course, it's critical to our overall community and a place for us to dispose of our waste You can see in the little table below That there's a department rating. We've been able to complete that and as christian mentioned We're working with other stakeholders across the city to evaluate this and that will continue But you can also look at cost drivers of revenue and expenses for each of these different business units Another good example is the one we just talked about earlier with the supplemental highway litter abatement program There's about 442,000 being invested this fiscal year We have to talk about priorities and budget overall as we move into fy 25 To determine how much we want to invest in a program such as this Again, those priorities are being considered and continued with the forward lab So just some quick perspectives We have seen this priorities based budget concept as a useful framework to underscore program value Again, it doesn't dictate if a program is going to stay or go or increase or decrease in funding But it also continues to build that data with all of the priorities and goals that have been set by city council It encourages an active policy conversation and by utilizing vantage points from other departments We're able to really have a deeper conversation to us to our to our department and to our staff These programs are the most important and the most beneficial to the city But when you bring in other perspectives, you start to look at that across the entire organization Of course, it also helps to forecast our future needs and identify opportunities to opt to optimize our resources So our next steps as a department We're going to continue to work with the forward lab to score the rest of our programs across the board And then of course, we'll be back with that fy 25 draft budget in a few months Thank you So i'm going to go back now that you have a department example um so Peer review is something that we didn't get to last year in our pilot program of pbb Peer review adds legitimacy and credibility to process by helping calibrate the way departments score their own importance and their own programs across the organization And so kody talked a little bit about us being in the middle of implementing peer review We're about 15 done with that peer review process. We are reviewing 323 programs across the nine departments and so that's a lot and then when you think about reviewing each program against each council priority depending on What type of program it is whether it has an external customer base or an internal customer base The review is different, but there's four to five for each program. So 323 times four or five I have the math in my notes, but you can do the math in your head. Um So that it's like no, I can 1500 1400 something like that. Yeah, it's a lot So um, so an example like kody said, um, his programs are mostly community, which means they have an external customer base I think they're actually all community. Um in environmental. They all have an external customer base And so if you think about taking one program in kody's group and evaluating it, you'd say, okay This is an external customer base. So it's a community program Um, and so we'll evaluate it against the council priority of responsible growth, which is one, you know, one of the the five um So the goals under responsible growth are there enhancing connectivity prioritizing preservation of parks Proactively planning for growth and then depending on the level of alignment of his program with each of those goals that leads to the score So perhaps you know What the highway litter abatement does does it enhance connectivity for communities? Maybe not. I don't know. Um Prioritizing preservation of open space and parks how aligned is it for that? And then are we proactively planning for growth through the highway litter abatement program? So maybe it's not well aligned or maybe it's somewhat aligned with responsible growth But then you do that process for every other council priority and that's how you get to a score So there's some, you know, objectivity there. So kody's group on their own does that And then they do it in front of the peers that are also participating in pbb And so that's when you start to calibrate, you know Oh, I ranked all my programs as extreme alignment with every council priority or or not, right? And we haven't seen anybody that did that ever trying to people are trying to be objective But it helps to have to defend your score, you know to your peers We we thought about doing it just with the lab But we thought well that doesn't really add a lot of credibility and legitimacy like we're we're one body But so we've had all nine departments that are participating in pbb Um participate in the peer review the 15 percent we've done so far And the cooler part is that we also opened it up to the non participating department So they could start to get a preview and we didn't really know if anyone would come But we have had people come we had water fire code some others Um, so that's been a fms was there So they've come and sat in and so now they when they you know to council rex point when we Uh implement with other departments They have a huge head start because they can see how people have calibrated their programs and then how they're Aligned with council priorities So it's been a neat process So the results um is that the the programs each have a quartile ranking ranking least to most align And then we'll have a scoring outcome from the department scores and the peer review And then that's something we're still conceptualizing like how do we then share it with city management? And how do we share it with you and how do we overlay you know The people who are participating and the people who aren't and sort of give you like a good package where you're seeing more levels of detail and um different data from a couple different groups, and so um We'll start I think I'm hopeful that in a future work session We can maybe show you some examples of what it could look like and you can weigh in and say yes This is helpful. Um, we also started our one-on-ones with you We've met with council member crane council member beck and we have other scheduled for the week and next week Um mark and I will we'll talk with you too about you know, what's helpful Okay Thank you again, kody. So here's the participating nine uh in pbb So we have code environmental development services hr and it library municipal court police and tpw Hr police and tpw were our three pilot departments last year and so they did scoring of their decision packages again, it was uh, I would say like I think I would say we're on like phase 1.5 because it was like kind of 0.5 last year Um, but we're really really implementing heavily this year. And so we're excited Um, I think it's I've been watching it click for a lot of the participating departments It certainly clicked with the lab staff after a couple of peer review sessions and we've gotten a lot more efficient Um, reviewing, you know, 1400 different criteria Okay, um, let's talk about doesn't make questions about any of that No, okay. Um, I'd like to talk about engagement So maybe I'll invite michelle and or amethyst to come up and talk a little bit about our engagement plans and how they might be different than You know what we've done before and how we're trying part of what the lab's doing is trying to streamline engagement opportunities around You know, we have the comp plan going on and we have budget ramping up. And so we're really trying to be strategic about that So one of the things we really want to do with engagement and amethyst and I have been having these conversations for Probably a couple months is we want to be sure we mirror our digital engagement with our in-person engagement So that we know we're reaching different audiences with both of those ways So what we've been talking about is what are the tools that she could use online To get input and how can we kind of mimic those at our public meetings? So, um I'll talk about some of the things that we have in the engagement office And then she can talk about some of the tools they're going to use From the lab. So we have a new portal. It's called connect fort worth And it will eventually house all of our engagement opportunities for the entire city So any project or program that we want to get input on we will have A link on this portal for people to provide input So we're going to create a page for the budget and we'll have a lot of the engagement opportunities linked to that page Um, we're also going to do again the steer the budget where we ask people to do the pictures with molly To tell us about things that they want us to address in the budget We thought that was a good way to kind of get people engaged and excited and it gave us some good pictures to use after that We're having spring open houses. Those are all on your calendar We're doing five of those and it will have Ways for people to engage with the budget, but it will also have opportunities for most city departments to um provide input and information on different programs that they have And like I said at the open house, we will have interactive activities that mimic What amethyst and the fort worth lab team are doing with some of their digital tools And then we'll follow that up after the proposed budget comes out We'll do another round of open houses and meetings to let people know about the proposed budget and um Get their input or their comments and answer questions about it One of the things we really want to do with the open house, you know, if we say we're having a budget meeting We don't get a huge number of people like knocking on the door to come to the meeting So what we want to do with these open houses is we want to Weave in the budget input with fun activities that people can do will have activities for children We'll also have activities for adults So hopefully we'll get a good crowd to come out and they'll be very engaged, but they won't really feel like they're they're Sitting through a budget meeting. So If you want to add some more stuff, sure amethyst lone strategy and performance manager for worth lab So i'm pretty excited about a lot of things michelle just talked about So for worth connect is going to be a game changer for us It's that one stop shop no matter what we're asking for Input on resident wise everything will be there So we'll have that one page that everything you can do The meetings will be listed all of the online activities that you can do will all be in one place really easy to find So some of the online activities We're really thinking about the budget in those two phases phase one being kind of made through the recommended budget And we're really we want to be explicit about asking folks to help us develop the budget So those activities are going to centralize around your council priorities There'll be an activity where they we ask them to rank the priorities We'll have a little bit of information demographics where they live So we can provide you as council members in that specific information about your district So in my district of all five council priorities, these are how they rack Rank in that area to help me make decisions Then we're going to use the thought exchange tool to ask specifically about your thoughts concerns or ideas for the budget So that's where we'll get those very specific like more money for homelessness activities litter cleanup, etc And again, we'll have information data demographics to be able to give you that information on a regular basis by council district And the mapping activity that michelle talked about will also be on that website So you can put a little pin a little green pin for something that you love and would like to see more of in that place Or something that needs to be fixed or there's a need so we'll have you know a variety of different ways to interact During the subsequent budget work sessions we have with you and outside We're going to give you pings on that information probably two or three times Between now and the end of july before you get the recommended budget So that you have a summarization of what the asks wants needs likes For the city overall are but also for your respective districts So you have that information at hand as you go out and talk to your constituents about their thoughts about the budget You'll have what we're receiving on our end as well Um, and then again, we will be at each of those open houses um at other meetings, etc As we go to deploy those same activities both in an in-person format and also Um online We're also going to work with michelle and her team to see what we can do for interactive activities and package Those is kind of a meeting in a box So folks can deploy that at a with a church group or a school group or anywhere else So that where it's not necessarily easy enough They don't have to rely on staff to facilitate but we can still get that extra input Um I have a question here I don't uh, I mean I support the open house format. I think it draws a lot of people out and You know helps accommodate their own individual schedules. That's all great support that What I'd like to know in my district is that um, and I'm sure other council members will too How many of these open houses will be in our own individual districts? and Aside from At-large resident outreach. Are we going to be making specific outreach to the registered neighborhood organizations as well? right now we have five, um open houses scheduled in for the spring and We've tried to geographically spread those around the city and also hit areas that we Aren't currently having comp plan meetings scheduled. So we tried to spread all of those out It was 12 meetings total that we were Scheduling and we tried to you know, take it take a look at the map the planning Sectors and the districts and find a geographic spread that was hitting most of the community When we do the five in the fall We will look at the locations that the council districts and planning sectors that did not have an open house in the spring And scheduled those for the fall. So that's the plan right now just because of resources and staffing that's involved with the open houses And on the connect fort worth right now, we're building that website The the portal we're adding projects right now It has the comp plan page But we're building others on the back end And then we're doing kind of a soft launch with the comp plan But we'll have a bigger launch once we have most of the projects in the budget page up if you want to visit it It's www.connectfw.com Any other questions www Dot connect fw.com I would just like to make a comment on the meeting locations as we're going through the meeting locations for the comprehensive plan noticed Some places in my district The closest place to attend a meeting for that particular topic was over a 30 minute drive for residents each way So let's let's please take in mind total travel time anywhere in the city to be able to attend these and Not end up in a situation like that again. Okay. Thank you So My opinion is that no one wants to come to a public meeting anymore And you get the same people that come Yes And it's just a reality of where people are we're such much more of an on-demand culture And furthermore, I think the folks I talked to would rather react to our ideas or what we're proposing and say Yes, or no, or maybe I'm in the middle rather than have to proactively say this is what I want in the budget And so really thinking through probably utilizing social media in a different way It's almost like the survey of these are our top priorities is the things we're funding this year These are the continual items that are going to come from fy 24 to 25. What do you think? Rather than just tell us and I I I know some other cities are grappling with this because everybody has the same struggle. So we're not unique But it's it's really time that we completely revolutionize the way we do this because I'm sure it's very frustrating for city staff too that go to Dozens of public meetings and the same 25 people come to those meetings And it's it's a huge waste of your time and so Well, I don't have an answer to our solution today, but just acknowledging that's a problem and that how can we all also pitch in To help meet that differently Because I know we've all talked about that Michael Yeah, I'll uh reiterate something I said the other day at the council meeting at the Fort Worth Food and Wine Festival Eric Flatterger's group was out there with the 2050 comprehensive plan So I don't know if they were out at main streets this week or whatever But I think we need to look at big events. We know people are already going to go to And get the reactions and they're having fun at those events and they're willing to spend five minutes I couldn't agree more Yeah, rather than that way your staff doesn't get burned out or frustrated so often And having to beat all those. Yeah, we've been working with the um team doing the comp plan and um identifying Places where people are already meeting and going to them and not expecting people to come to us When amethyst and I were putting together the plan We know that um, we're getting different Generations at our public meetings versus, you know, if we had things more digital and we want to hear from everybody But you're right. The public meetings are a lot more time intensive. It takes a lot more staff And um, sometimes the attendance is low. And so we want to try and Have multiple opportunities and ways for people to give us the input and um, and then bring that together and present it to you Also to bring this back to priority based budgeting once we have all departments on that system I think we're going to be amazed at the different ways that we can explain the budget What's important in the budget and the decisions that we're actually making through that lens Then we can right now with line in a budget So I think that's going to be a game changer and you might see a third phase And that approach to the budget and kind of what do you want? Here's what we think the major decisions are going to be and then here's what the recommended is So I can see pvb really leading us in that direction In a much stronger way that that anybody could explain to someone that maybe maybe the average staff member couldn't explain a line Out of them way to the public too. Michelle might know this or Renee What's our number of individuals that have signed up for city news right now in the city of Fort Worth? I want to say it's Around 30,000. Yeah, I mean that just gives you an idea You know if city of almost a million people well And the other thing we did at the public meeting is we started asking people How did you find out about the meeting so we can see which of our tools is having the most impact and getting people there and So we're using that information to kind of Change the way we get the word out about the different meetings We can keep working on it. Thank you all very much for your hard work. We appreciate it. Thanks I have one correction to make On this slide I put the codes participating and they are not we swapped them with neighborhood services So please don't think that they are and I apologize to neighborhood services too Thank you to my many staff who emailed me during this meeting and told me that Okay, so um It looks like we might give you like 10 minutes of your life back But um, I just want to I'm hoping that that little bit of a dive into foundation I think normally at this time of year You wouldn't really even know where the general fund is sitting with regard to a target budget So I'm hoping that's helpful and we can dive into any of that that you would like And we're planning to meet again in two weeks knowing from my sharing of the budget calendar That department still will not have fully submitted their budgets at that time. I'm wondering What would be helpful if you have preliminary ideas as to Either pbb departments or non participating departments that you'd like some early preliminary dives into That will help you as you you know start to think about the fiscal year 25 budget Or any other subjects that you're interested in because we want these to be useful to you Any comments on that? Any comments or questions? I see no go ahead. This may not be the right venue and it may be a very unpopular request That's okay. Um the street maintenance fee. Um as we're walking I know where we have a task force set up and we're working, you know on that I would love to sit down and better understand If we don't go down that path the street maintenance fee How can we find those dollars or do some scenario planning right now? And so we can have those conversations and have a better understanding fiscally where we stand Um with that piece and that that I don't have anybody else agrees But I'm really not in board with the street maintenance fee right now So I think having a better understanding of where we are budgeting for 2025 would be helpful Thank you And I think you you stated that our growth estimate right now is we're operating off of 4% assumption. Is that correct? That's correct. And you're looking right now at a 3.5 percent budget increase. That's correct So just based on that. I know it's not There yet, but let's think about maybe next session talking about tax rate And what our goals are around that it doesn't mean we stick to it But operating on the assumption if things continue where they are Are we going to be at no new revenue? Yes or no if we because there's no reason to do this last minute anymore There's no reason to have a fight on the dais and out of the budget vote, right? So we can work through some of this Um as much as we can and I think we all know that right now More than any other time I've worked in city government people are very focused on the economy inflation cost of living property taxes is a big piece of that So let's just meet people where they are and importantly when we make the tax rate decision in the budget decision We can defend it Um, especially this body being more involved in that decision-making process Yeah, I was just gonna say the the the four percent comes from the three and a half percent basic cap Plus a half percent growth, which is very conservative. And that's where we start with the pay go And so to your point when you look at that The well, we we heard already from the chief appraiser about what he's already seen He and his team were already seen in terms of appraisals So it's not going to be a year like we've seen the last two years. It's going to be a tighter year At the same time, you know, we need to address this ems issue that you all are, you know working very hard on um, and then The street issue the street maintenance issue and this is our last year for recapture also, isn't it? Yeah, yes. So another thing to think about right right. We have an increment too So what we can do is play out some scenarios Not really knowing what the final number is going to be and then have to have that discussion like you said So that it's not all at the last minute. I think that's helpful Jean Mayor and and council members. I just had a light bulb idea We had one of the plan 2050 meetings in my district last week And I was yeah, you all know I very seldom think about compliments for outreach But in this case, well, you know, I was everybody knows that But we had a real good turnout And mayor as you know, I was dead social media. So I couldn't do my usual I didn't do a robo call but whatever Tactics Michelle and her team pulled off it worked But it dawned on me when we talk about people not wanting to come to a meeting Most of these attendees were probably 50 and older And so you will want to be mindful of who what demographic we're reaching out to And we did have several people from woodhaven who are new to district 5 and excited about being there And so but I wanted to give them kudos But when you think about who was there, it was an older demographic So I think we might even have ways to just Get people at these trails and marches and whatever So that we can meet them where they are But it's they did a good job for these people who turned out and and and I had a protester there who did not Step on the property. He was he was out front But uh, it was it was well attended. So just just fyi Any other questions or comments? Thank y'all very much. This was helpful With that council, I think Meeting adjourned