WEBVTT 1 00:07:21.918 --> 00:07:24.425 I'm calling to order this work session of the City Council. 2 00:07:24.666 --> 00:07:34.656 Uh, following in my tradition of trying to defer to subject, uh, areas for the chairs of the appropriate committees, I'm going to be turning the running of this work session over to Councilor Kanal. 3 00:07:36.408 --> 00:07:37.547 Thank you, Council President. 4 00:07:37.629 --> 00:07:38.819 Just pulling up my notes here. 5 00:07:41.137 --> 00:07:47.434 So I'm gonna be kicking this over to Councilors Zimmerman and Greene in a second, so I might need to pause for that part of it. 6 00:07:47.514 --> 00:07:50.009 But thanks everybody for being here today. 7 00:07:50.091 --> 00:08:01.836 We're here because we've recognized that our city's financial situation is in crisis, and it's not solely that we've had one or two bad years, but that there are structural long-term issues that need to be addressed. 8 00:08:01.964 --> 00:08:04.504 This is something that our CFO, Jonas Beery, has been talking about for a while and working on for a while. 9 00:08:04.569 --> 00:08:04.699 Thank you. 10 00:08:06.699 --> 00:08:18.120 I'm thankful to him as well as to councilors who've been working on a workgroup on this for a while to provide recommendations for how to address it and stabilize our city's financial outlook. 11 00:08:18.220 --> 00:08:26.879 So what we're going to hear today is the result of many months of work from many people, including CFO Berry, Councilor Zimmerman, Councilor Green, and some community members. 12 00:08:26.879 --> 00:08:30.009 And I'm sure he'll have a list of everybody who's here. 13 00:08:31.589 --> 00:08:34.000 At this point, I'm supposed to hand it over to Councilor Zimmerman. 14 00:08:34.000 --> 00:08:36.679 I think he's running a minute behind to provide a framing remark. 15 00:08:36.679 --> 00:08:36.779 Thank you, Councilor Sameer Kanal. 16 00:08:37.350 --> 00:08:37.595 Or 2. 17 00:08:37.659 --> 00:08:37.725 Or 2. 18 00:08:37.855 --> 00:08:43.197 So, okay, um, you, you're, you're— we rang the bell and you were here. 19 00:08:43.360 --> 00:08:51.938 Uh, I was about to pass it over to you, Councilor Zimmerman, to, uh, slowly finishing the sentence, provide some framing remarks. 20 00:08:55.847 --> 00:08:57.289 Hi, how are we all doing? 21 00:08:57.467 --> 00:08:58.878 Thanks for letting me walk in a couple minutes late. 22 00:08:58.927 --> 00:08:59.995 It was busy. 23 00:09:00.222 --> 00:09:02.102 Um, are we just doing our opening remarks, sir? 24 00:09:02.183 --> 00:09:02.605 Councilor Green? 25 00:09:03.494 --> 00:09:07.236 You're going first and then Jonas and then Councilor Herbold. 26 00:09:07.494 --> 00:09:07.831 Great. 27 00:09:07.927 --> 00:09:24.134 So, you know, this idea really stemmed from my time as a chair of the Finance Committee in the last iteration and looking at the challenges that we had with both last year's budget and getting ready to craft this year's budget is that we are oftentimes a reactionary government. 28 00:09:24.359 --> 00:09:30.571 And these last several years since 2020 have, I would classify as, A reaction, right? 29 00:09:30.650 --> 00:09:34.114 2020 On has been a reaction, and it's time to be more deliberate. 30 00:09:34.385 --> 00:09:48.846 And I asked Councilor Green his interest, and we both thought it is time to start thinking about how can council work with the administration to see what a stabilization, out of crisis, out of fire at your feet mindset could look like. 31 00:09:49.534 --> 00:09:56.075 And at the same time, our CFO was certainly having those conversations, and these kind of— we married up at the same time. 32 00:09:56.524 --> 00:10:00.418 Councilor Green and I represent very different sides of the ideological spectrum on this council. 33 00:10:00.758 --> 00:10:38.807 We both sat on the Finance Committee, but we're both finance folks, and we felt that we could represent a good forward-facing perspective from our chairs to give the body's work some credibility with our council and to aid wherever we could for our CFO, for the finance team, and then all of our volunteer members To try and deliver something that can land in this council, get thoughtfully discussed, and not maybe from one ideological side or another. 34 00:10:39.240 --> 00:10:58.022 And I want to just give a lot of appreciation to the CFO, Mr. Beery, the entire team that he worked with, because in the recruitment of volunteers and in working with us, the amount of work that's gone into this stabilization project has been It's been a big lift. 35 00:10:58.952 --> 00:11:16.763 And the volunteers that sat this group with us, I am just so deeply appreciative to, coming from a variety of walks of life, a variety of parts of our town, a variety of organizations from which they either have worked, retired from, or currently working, and, and, and the neighborhoods. 36 00:11:16.875 --> 00:11:29.046 And so their, their effort on Friday afternoons for these last few months have been quite welcome, and I'm, I'm happy that Some of them are here and happy to lend my, uh, time to anything that Jonas and his team needs. 37 00:11:29.110 --> 00:11:32.126 So with that, I'd turn it over to my co-chair, Councilor Green. 38 00:11:33.153 --> 00:11:34.822 Uh, thank you so much, Councilor Zimmerman. 39 00:11:34.936 --> 00:11:48.754 I remember when I got the call from you, uh, it was like, I think, coming out of the Christmas recess, and you had gotten advance notice from incoming City Administrator Lee, who first thing you have to do when you walk in the door is like, oh no, we're in a financial crisis. 40 00:11:49.316 --> 00:11:52.169 So I was like, yes, I'll serve, you know, I'll help. 41 00:11:52.811 --> 00:11:54.044 I think this is a great idea. 42 00:11:54.173 --> 00:12:13.519 And really, you know, Jonas, you put in a lot of work personally, but also kind of making sure that this table was set with a range of voices from our community who span the private sector, the labor, you know, our labor, you know, the House of Labor, as it were. 43 00:12:14.466 --> 00:12:17.125 You've got— we had community-based organizations. 44 00:12:17.191 --> 00:12:24.822 And so So really some intentionality there to make sure that this wasn't just a thing that, you know, you and your team cooked up over a weekend or a week. 45 00:12:25.460 --> 00:12:43.756 This wasn't just a thing that Councilor Zimmerman brought forward or I brought forward, but really trying to be what I think is what this new government is supposed to be doing more of, which is sort of reaching into our communities, pulling some good ideas from there, and then sitting as leaders to see how we can shape it and move it forward. 46 00:12:43.804 --> 00:12:49.558 And I agree, this was The effort here was to lend some credibility to the exercise. 47 00:12:49.672 --> 00:12:52.844 And so there's no decision that we have to take right now. 48 00:12:52.972 --> 00:12:58.620 What we're going to do is we're going to see some really, I think, thoughtful set of priorities for us to engage on. 49 00:12:59.121 --> 00:13:19.923 And I encourage my colleagues to keep an open mind and just know that in those Friday workshops, there was a lot of candid discussion and not necessarily agreement, but a shared understanding that if we don't tackle these things together, In some kind of a way that our city will suffer, irrespective of your priorities. 50 00:13:20.503 --> 00:13:24.320 And so I'm really eager to hear from our CFO. 51 00:13:24.548 --> 00:13:43.479 And I would just ask my colleagues, as we work through this over the process, is just know that we're all trying to build something together that provides more resiliency and soundness to our balance sheet, which we owe to Portlanders. 52 00:13:43.835 --> 00:13:44.110 So thank you. 53 00:13:44.158 --> 00:13:44.304 Thank you. 54 00:13:45.143 --> 00:13:45.464 Thanks. 55 00:13:45.624 --> 00:14:00.596 And so just before passing it over to CFO Beery, I did want to note, because this is a big topic and we've been approaching the budget, as has been pointed out, primarily in a reactive way, and this would be reframing that conversation, we asked for a lot of information from CFO Beery. 56 00:14:00.692 --> 00:14:03.833 And so this is a long presentation and that's not his fault. 57 00:14:03.898 --> 00:14:05.356 That's how we set it up. 58 00:14:05.404 --> 00:14:07.087 But I just want to get that on the record first. 59 00:14:07.809 --> 00:14:09.364 We're going to do that presentation. 60 00:14:09.428 --> 00:14:10.405 We'll probably take a break. 61 00:14:10.534 --> 00:14:14.798 And then the idea is that the second half of the conversation is led by this side of the dais. 62 00:14:14.863 --> 00:14:16.947 So just wanted to make sure everybody was aware of that first. 63 00:14:17.043 --> 00:14:20.383 And with that, our city Chief Financial Officer, Jonas Beery. 64 00:14:21.682 --> 00:14:21.923 Great. 65 00:14:22.085 --> 00:14:23.802 Good afternoon, councilors. 66 00:14:23.865 --> 00:14:26.049 Thank you, Councilor Kanal, for that. 67 00:14:26.114 --> 00:14:29.644 And thank you, Councilors Zimmerman and Green, for the tee-up. 68 00:14:29.741 --> 00:14:33.835 I think you'll hear some reinforcing of some of those same points here today. 69 00:14:34.365 --> 00:14:39.710 And yeah, just thank you in advance for listening to what will be an unusually long presentation from me today. 70 00:14:40.240 --> 00:14:42.263 Councilor Kanal, possibly is partially my fault. 71 00:14:42.311 --> 00:14:45.907 I prepared the presentation, but appreciate that acknowledgement. 72 00:14:46.902 --> 00:14:50.477 As we begin, I wanted to start by just a couple of introductory comments. 73 00:14:50.573 --> 00:15:03.629 I believe that development of a comprehensive financial strategy is among the most critical things that we can do and something that we have rarely, if ever, had an opportunity to do under the prior limitations of the prior form of government. 74 00:15:04.285 --> 00:15:15.335 Our financial systems underpin everything we might hope to achieve, and we cannot effectively deliver basic services or meet policy objectives without stable and reliable financial systems and strategies. 75 00:15:16.394 --> 00:15:31.051 Also, I can't begin today's conversation without recognizing and appreciating the city's financial professionals who do this work every single day, often under difficult circumstances and unfair criticism, to quietly keep the city moving forward as best we can. 76 00:15:31.644 --> 00:15:44.279 Thank you to the individuals who enter and verify the accuracy of financial data, who collect incoming revenues, who answer phone calls and assist Portlanders with billing questions, who process payments to employees and vendors, Thank you. 77 00:15:44.279 --> 00:15:44.279 Thank you, Councilor Loretta Smith. 78 00:15:44.279 --> 00:15:44.279 Thank you, Councilor Sameer Kanal. 79 00:15:44.279 --> 00:15:50.580 Thank you to the City Budget Office and to everyone throughout the entire organization who plays a critical role in keeping the city's financial systems up and running. 80 00:15:51.120 --> 00:15:56.330 As you'll hear today and you've heard previewed, it's been a massive lift to get this to this moment. 81 00:15:56.580 --> 00:16:00.710 But I do think the value of the process will be seen in the outcomes as we get there. 82 00:16:01.120 --> 00:16:06.919 When I presented this concept, I think I called it an impossible dream to deliver to you in spring. 83 00:16:06.940 --> 00:16:08.919 I was right. 84 00:16:08.919 --> 00:16:16.293 But it was really important that we be more patient and let the roots grow and foster some less traditional Thank you. 85 00:16:16.373 --> 00:16:19.499 Traditional to the city anyway for input and dialogue. 86 00:16:20.203 --> 00:16:22.464 2 Primary outputs that I'm going to share today. 87 00:16:22.865 --> 00:16:28.892 The first is a set of broad recommendations that were developed specifically by the Financial Stabilization Workgroup. 88 00:16:29.597 --> 00:16:40.866 And then the second output is a set of potential implementation actions identified by myself, by me as Chief Financial Officer, that respond to and flow from the recommendations. 89 00:16:41.524 --> 00:16:55.547 And as the next step in the effort, I look forward to sharing with you today how I believe we can continue moving to improve our financial condition and meet a wide range of council administrative and community objectives via a citywide action plan and financial strategy. 90 00:16:56.767 --> 00:17:03.816 As the ultimate decision makers and the direct connection to Portlanders, it's essential that City Council understand and support the city's financial strategy. 91 00:17:04.490 --> 00:17:17.571 So in addition to receiving your feedback and suggestions, I hope that the information shared today will offer you and offer Portlanders some increased confidence that we have the collective ability to navigate the city back to a Thank you. 92 00:17:18.459 --> 00:17:23.140 So just to run a show quickly as we move to the next slide. 93 00:17:23.188 --> 00:17:27.638 First, I'll provide a little grounding in the project itself, the workgroup, and the process. 94 00:17:28.298 --> 00:17:36.173 Second, I'll give you a summary of the recommendations developed by the workgroup and also note that that information was provided to your inboxes on Monday. 95 00:17:36.334 --> 00:17:45.317 It's included, I believe, as an attachment to today's agenda item, and the recommendation report and this presentation are also posted online at portland.gov/hello/financials. 96 00:17:48.240 --> 00:17:49.826 Financial stabilization. 97 00:17:50.596 --> 00:17:56.205 And we intend to use that page to update information as that becomes relevant as this work moves forward. 98 00:17:57.087 --> 00:18:06.240 And then the third piece of the presentation today is I've used the workgroup recommendations to translate into 44 potential implementation actions. 99 00:18:06.690 --> 00:18:16.099 I don't expect we're going to have space to review every single one in detail, but these actions and the action plan that comes out of them are where I recommend focusing most of our attention today. 100 00:18:16.628 --> 00:18:22.880 And then lastly, of course, I want to hear from you so we can refine approaches Thank you. 101 00:18:22.880 --> 00:18:29.420 Again, it'll be a lot of me speaking, certainly more than I'd prefer, but thank you ahead of time for giving that space. 102 00:18:29.420 --> 00:18:36.650 I think getting through the content will maximize the value of the time for questions and discussion. 103 00:18:37.000 --> 00:18:38.809 I'm going to get through this as rapidly as possible. 104 00:18:39.000 --> 00:18:42.720 I don't want to shortcut too much because there's a lot of high-value content. 105 00:18:43.039 --> 00:18:50.259 I think the background context is really important, but each slide really here is going to be a building block that will make the action plan at the end, I think, more clear and understandable. 106 00:18:52.087 --> 00:18:56.232 All right, so just a reminder of the big picture context. 107 00:18:56.651 --> 00:18:57.244 Why are we here? 108 00:18:57.920 --> 00:19:08.219 As was previewed, we've come from a place of kind of being a legacy reactive organization, having repeated budget challenges, having repeated mid-year budget adjustments. 109 00:19:08.605 --> 00:19:18.164 And so really started this project to think more strategically over the long term, not just budget to budget, aligned to expectations of 2024 charter reform. 110 00:19:21.839 --> 00:19:49.433 While there are signs of improvement, sort of some green shoots starting to appear in the data and financial condition, I do anticipate that we'll still be in a financial crisis mode for fiscal '27-'28 budget development, but with defined action today, we'll be able to And hopefully collective intention, I do believe we can move, start to move forward towards stabilization. 111 00:19:50.828 --> 00:19:59.356 All right, before we move into the details, just a little bit of background and context on the workgroup and the recommendations, which is what I'll present to you first. 112 00:19:59.885 --> 00:20:06.954 And in particular, I wanted to preview what the workgroup is and what the recommendations are and what it is not. 113 00:20:07.836 --> 00:20:11.330 The work here of the workgroup is acknowledgement of a need to think differently. 114 00:20:11.907 --> 00:20:18.712 As mentioned, it was convened by the co-chairs, myself and Councilors Green and Zimmerman, but the conversation largely driven by the workgroup. 115 00:20:19.201 --> 00:20:20.663 It was an evolutionary process. 116 00:20:21.872 --> 00:20:28.027 It's intended to be a framework and a guiding document and a starting point for the conversation, which I think we'll see it is. 117 00:20:29.751 --> 00:20:33.851 What this work was not, it's not indicative of unanimous agreement. 118 00:20:33.946 --> 00:20:38.757 As was mentioned, there was lots of disagreement in the room and acknowledgment that that was okay. 119 00:20:39.313 --> 00:20:41.258 It's not intended to be a single path forward. 120 00:20:41.871 --> 00:20:43.503 It's not a prioritized list. 121 00:20:44.248 --> 00:20:50.116 It's not executive recommendations for action or implementation, although those will be the second part of the presentation today. 122 00:20:50.213 --> 00:20:52.721 And certainly it's not a complete or final answer. 123 00:20:54.589 --> 00:20:57.259 So just the background on a little bit of how we structured this. 124 00:20:57.939 --> 00:21:00.528 The highlighted box in the middle is the workgroup. 125 00:21:00.609 --> 00:21:04.106 That was the primary forum where this work occurred. 126 00:21:05.290 --> 00:21:10.805 And the participants, as was mentioned, were really an amazing group of Portlanders. 127 00:21:11.403 --> 00:21:16.439 Who committed to spend over 20 hours together on multiple Friday afternoons doing this work. 128 00:21:17.161 --> 00:21:25.950 And I'm deeply, deeply grateful to every one of those individuals for their expertise, for the honesty in the room, and their shared passion for making Portland a better place. 129 00:21:26.542 --> 00:21:35.750 As was previously mentioned by Councilor Green, I believe, the conversations were robust, were deep, and were very engaging. 130 00:21:36.567 --> 00:21:56.829 While they were Friday afternoons, I always walked away from every meeting I also do want to acknowledge Councilors Green and Zimmerman, who agreed to participate as co-leads and co-facilitators. 131 00:21:57.814 --> 00:22:12.019 I do— I did experience and believe that their direct participation, their direct support, having that input directly from the legislative branch was extremely valuable to the conversation, to the workgroup members, and I'm personally thankful to Thank you. 132 00:22:12.169 --> 00:22:14.314 Thank you both for your ongoing commitment to this effort. 133 00:22:15.900 --> 00:22:29.040 In addition to the workgroup meetings, which was the primary forum, we also facilitated space to collect input from some other voices to bring as much input to inform the conversations as we could, and then also to inform the eventual action plans. 134 00:22:29.992 --> 00:22:35.027 Those additional input points were engagement with an interagency support team. 135 00:22:35.090 --> 00:22:44.788 We met twice with that team that included financial representation from our governmental partners at the county, Metro, Port of Portland, Portland Public Schools, and TriMet. 136 00:22:44.884 --> 00:22:49.553 We'll talk a little bit about maybe some of the outcome of that, but really valuable input coming in from there. 137 00:22:50.468 --> 00:23:06.959 Also met twice with a group of city labor leaders and separately met twice with the citywide equity practitioners group, including an additional smaller focus group of those members, and pursued some additional kind of one-on-one dialogue with community members to supplement that. 138 00:23:07.471 --> 00:23:17.491 And I expect you'll see input from all of those groups incorporated here in the recommendations and, and in the As I mentioned, this was sort of evolutionary. 139 00:23:18.068 --> 00:23:22.603 We operated this process from a place of really allowing the workgroup to drive the direction. 140 00:23:23.276 --> 00:23:30.212 This wasn't the traditional exercise of saying, here's some administrative recommendations and give us a thumbs up or thumbs down. 141 00:23:30.950 --> 00:23:40.994 The expectations of the workgroup evolved as the discussion progressed, which was often uncomfortable and sometimes left us a little bit unclear about where we might end up. 142 00:23:41.042 --> 00:23:43.375 But I think we have ended up at a really, really Good spot. 143 00:23:44.027 --> 00:23:47.023 I think this was an approach that was both unique but also really healthy. 144 00:23:48.707 --> 00:23:56.316 And again, kind of got us to a good place here of being open about receiving that feedback and then being able to translate that into actions. 145 00:23:59.462 --> 00:24:07.867 And for awareness and recognition, I wanted to share here the specific wonderful humans who committed their time to the workgroup and the recommendations. 146 00:24:08.565 --> 00:24:12.182 I won't go through every name, but you can see them on the screen. 147 00:24:12.231 --> 00:24:17.306 And if you see or know these people, please join me Thank you. 148 00:24:20.509 --> 00:24:28.938 I wanted to just flash a couple slides up here quickly about the flow of work and the kind of general methodology to get to the recommendations. 149 00:24:30.246 --> 00:24:31.644 I won't read the details here. 150 00:24:31.723 --> 00:24:32.398 You can see them. 151 00:24:32.511 --> 00:24:43.288 But I did feel it was important to kind of flash this on just to provide some context and give a flavor for how things were generally discussed, the types of topics that came up during those 7 workgroup meetings. 152 00:24:43.548 --> 00:24:57.318 I also think it's just really valuable to note that the workgroup pretty quickly identified that financial instability is maybe more of a systems issue and not just a math problem. 153 00:24:57.384 --> 00:25:00.018 And so you'll see that perspective reflected throughout here. 154 00:25:01.383 --> 00:25:12.048 And then akin to the prior slide, this just provides a different kind of lens on the flow of that conversation and the key topics that were addressed at each of those 7 workgroup meetings. 155 00:25:12.210 --> 00:25:12.632 Thank you. 156 00:25:14.422 --> 00:25:22.078 All right, so moving on to the second section of the presentation, I'm going to share information about the recommendations that came out of the workgroup effort. 157 00:25:22.498 --> 00:25:27.238 And again, these are reflected in a 15 or so page report that's, that's also available. 158 00:25:28.609 --> 00:25:29.334 A few notes as we begin. 159 00:25:30.251 --> 00:25:49.950 The recommendation report was largely drafted by Next Strategies, who played a really important role in helping manage the meetings, helping guide the discussion, Although often letting the room drive the discussion, and then independently synthesizing the input into suggestions back to the workgroup and refinement into the final report. 160 00:25:51.565 --> 00:25:55.086 These are not recommendations from the CFO directly. 161 00:25:55.424 --> 00:26:03.143 They're not recommendations from the city administration, although we are indeed largely, almost completely in alignment. 162 00:26:03.625 --> 00:26:11.059 And I'll highlight a few examples as we go through that clearly illuminate where I think the workgroup added deep, deep value and led Thank you. 163 00:26:11.059 --> 00:26:11.059 And I appreciate the work that the workgroup did in coming up with these recommendations. 164 00:26:11.059 --> 00:26:15.690 And I think it's really important to recognize that the workgroup was able to come up with a lot of good suggestions that likely maybe wouldn't have been brought forward if not for receiving their direction. 165 00:26:16.259 --> 00:26:19.380 As previously mentioned, these recommendations aren't prioritized. 166 00:26:19.380 --> 00:26:25.180 Something showing up first or second in the document doesn't suggest it has any more or less importance than something at the end of the report. 167 00:26:26.119 --> 00:26:36.700 And again, to just lean into, while there was general agreement in the context of the recommendation report, nothing in the recommendation should be interpreted as indicating consensus. 168 00:26:36.700 --> 00:26:51.929 There was absolutely disagreement and differences of perspective and opinion, which the workgroup I do think there's a few common themes that show up throughout and will be reflected in the actions as well. 169 00:26:52.635 --> 00:27:09.734 Those are— the way I would group those is around improving financial literacy, both citywide and within the community, the criticality of data and communications in support of building public trust, maintaining not just an operational lens as maybe we're used to, but really leaning into a community outcome focus. 170 00:27:09.784 --> 00:27:10.315 I think that's a great point. 171 00:27:10.448 --> 00:27:15.928 Engaging with community and frontline workers, and value in regional coordination. 172 00:27:17.178 --> 00:27:18.652 So let's move to the recommendations. 173 00:27:19.068 --> 00:27:36.326 At the highest level, this is how those recommendations have been bucketed, and I'll go through each of these individual lines a little more closely, but wanted to kind of bookmark this page as we'll reference back to some of these categories as we go through the recommendations and into the action items. 174 00:27:37.499 --> 00:27:44.994 And then I'll also just preview that many of these will lead to, connect to actions that are already in progress. 175 00:27:45.059 --> 00:27:47.997 And so we'll talk about that when we get to that point as well. 176 00:27:48.976 --> 00:27:59.875 I think more than anything, these recommendations are really helpful framing of the problems and desired outcomes so we can continue to putting actions in motion. 177 00:28:00.871 --> 00:28:15.435 And I believe you'll see that, I think you'll see these recommendations respected and reflected in the proposed Additionally, excuse me, you can already see value from the workgroup input in at least a couple of items at this high level. 178 00:28:16.287 --> 00:28:28.413 For example, I would venture an educated guess that biennial budgeting and regional coordination probably wouldn't have hit the top 10 in the conversation if this would've been something that I personally brought forward. 179 00:28:28.798 --> 00:28:31.835 And so I just think those are kind of obvious examples. 180 00:28:31.883 --> 00:28:33.088 We'll go a little deeper here, but Thank you. 181 00:28:33.250 --> 00:28:39.330 So these are just some of the obvious examples of things that these workgroup participants were able to elevate in importance to explore. 182 00:28:39.461 --> 00:28:41.837 And so again, I want to highlight that and elevate that. 183 00:28:43.839 --> 00:28:54.065 Before we dig into the details, I just want to also give a last reminder that I am not— with regard to the workgroup recommendations, I'm not editorializing or modifying the information. 184 00:28:54.483 --> 00:29:03.468 I'm simply reporting out on the content in the report to frame up the more specific potential actions that will flow from So let's go. 185 00:29:04.836 --> 00:29:15.612 The first recommendation is around— within the bucket of financial strategy and discipline— is around developing a more stable, sufficient, and equitable revenue strategy. 186 00:29:16.368 --> 00:29:27.566 Much of the energy around this area related to looking for durable and less volatile revenue streams, but also expanding additional flexibility within additional— within existing revenue Thank you. 187 00:29:28.384 --> 00:29:35.806 There is recognition that for any revenue the city collects, somebody down the line ultimately has to provide that revenue, whether directly or indirectly. 188 00:29:36.383 --> 00:29:48.662 There is robust conversation about avoiding regressive impacts and being mindful of where changes in revenue sources may have impacts that are disproportionate to the resource availability of payers, including pass-through impacts. 189 00:29:49.303 --> 00:30:08.490 I'd also note that the workgroup's recognition— I'd also note the workgroup's recognition that the city has a legacy and indeed a habit that we're still trying to break of more siloed thinking around Where one revenue stream may change in isolation without adequately connecting to the impacts of other costs or community income realities. 190 00:30:11.009 --> 00:30:16.472 The second recommendation area is to reorient financial policies toward long-term sustainability. 191 00:30:17.228 --> 00:30:25.221 Many of the city's financial policies are in need of a refresh to align to post-charter change expectations and to be more responsive to recent changes in economic conditions. 192 00:30:25.270 --> 00:30:25.384 Thank you. 193 00:30:25.566 --> 00:30:36.148 In particular, the group identified a need to look with fresh eyes on policies around reserves, use of one-time resources, transfers, set-asides, and fund balances. 194 00:30:36.903 --> 00:30:45.255 The workgroup also recommended enhancing policies that may be open for variable interpretation and those that result in frequent exceptions or noncompliance. 195 00:30:46.057 --> 00:30:52.160 In addition to policy development itself, it was suggested that the city explore ways to be more accountable for ensuring awareness that these policies are in place. 196 00:30:52.223 --> 00:30:52.368 Thank you. 197 00:30:53.089 --> 00:31:03.109 And again, I'm— a lot more detail on the slide than I'm going through here quickly, so we can come back if there's questions about this. 198 00:31:03.970 --> 00:31:08.450 Next section was related to biennial budgeting. 199 00:31:08.450 --> 00:31:12.009 The recommendation here was to adopt biennial budgeting. 200 00:31:12.009 --> 00:31:20.829 And while there was some disagreement about the details and potential pros and cons that might exist within a pathway towards biennial budgeting, there were strong opinions that it was important to adopt biennial budgeting. 201 00:31:20.829 --> 00:31:20.869 Thank you. 202 00:31:21.212 --> 00:31:29.161 That shifting to a 2-year cycle could avoid surprises, increase predictability, and strengthen financial planning and coordination. 203 00:31:29.626 --> 00:31:31.586 Also recognition that that's a heavy lift. 204 00:31:31.650 --> 00:31:35.199 And so it's probably not gonna be a flip a switch kind of a moment. 205 00:31:35.247 --> 00:31:37.045 And again, we'll see that reflected in the actions. 206 00:31:38.088 --> 00:31:51.634 In addition, the workgroup acknowledged here the need to increase involvement of frontline workers, improve equity analysis and financial analysis into the budget process, All of which frankly are things we should do regardless of whether we shift to a biennial cycle or not. 207 00:31:54.390 --> 00:31:58.299 The second primary bucket here, decision support and governance. 208 00:31:58.365 --> 00:32:04.214 The first recommendation within that bucket is to define core services and establish service expectations. 209 00:32:05.007 --> 00:32:17.047 This recommendation was rooted in the general idea that it's difficult for the public and for city decision makers to decide and communicate budget values without clear understanding of service priorities Yes. 210 00:32:17.288 --> 00:32:25.465 The workgroup identified some key considerations such as legal requirements, i.e., what are we mandated to perform by charter or statute? 211 00:32:25.885 --> 00:32:28.323 What are the city's priorities or other formal commitments? 212 00:32:28.548 --> 00:32:30.308 What are the actual needs of Portlanders? 213 00:32:30.880 --> 00:32:38.528 And what role can non-city partners, i.e., other local governments, nonprofits, or private partners play in supporting service delivery? 214 00:32:39.285 --> 00:32:42.693 In existing— in addition to evaluating existing programs and Yes. 215 00:32:43.098 --> 00:32:54.806 Suggestions in this area were around establishing formal service level expectations and performance measures and clearly communicating the commitments and trade-offs of the choices the city makes with regard to service delivery. 216 00:32:56.520 --> 00:33:07.528 The next recommendation is to ensure citywide financial data reliability and visibility, which centered on ensuring that information about financial realities is adequately assessed and communicated. 217 00:33:08.123 --> 00:33:17.932 Important considerations here were to improve inputs and outputs related to equity impacts and potential differences of impacts at a more micro-localized or neighborhood level. 218 00:33:18.702 --> 00:33:33.075 More specific suggestions related to formalizing a single point of information for financial truth, improving financial and revenue impact assessments, and emphasizing clear public communications that balance appropriate detail with accessibility and ease of understanding. 219 00:33:34.801 --> 00:33:52.009 And the third recommendation within decision support and governance The primary objective of this recommendation is to ensure councilors and council offices have adequate access to information and also have shared understanding of how to use and interpret that information. 220 00:33:52.660 --> 00:34:01.670 The group suggested that perhaps there's a model where council offices can more intentionally share analytical resources rather than dividing those resources among multiple offices. 221 00:34:01.839 --> 00:34:06.380 Additionally, this area again emphasized the potential value of having district-level financial analysis and reporting. 222 00:34:06.359 --> 00:34:06.420 Analysis Thank you. 223 00:34:07.357 --> 00:34:09.240 Along the citywide impact assessment. 224 00:34:12.257 --> 00:34:16.119 The 3rd general issue area is regional coordination and advocacy. 225 00:34:17.260 --> 00:34:22.050 The 2 recommendations within this area were around the, uh, 3 general concepts. 226 00:34:22.534 --> 00:34:27.503 One is that there can be confusion and misinformation about which government entity provides which service. 227 00:34:28.164 --> 00:34:42.632 2 Is that when governments are not in coordination and cooperation, there can be overlap or gaps in And 3 is that regardless of the questions of service, regional decision-making and advocacy could be strengthened by improved intentional and strategic collaboration. 228 00:34:44.108 --> 00:34:51.543 The first recommendation in this 3rd category around regional coordination is to coordinate regional service delivery and fiscal strategy. 229 00:34:51.670 --> 00:35:02.583 And you can see listed on the slide the specific area— the areas the workgroup recommends for collaboration, and noting also the recommendation that the city take a leadership role in organizing those efforts. 230 00:35:03.291 --> 00:35:14.844 The workgroup also called out the importance of involving community in the conversation, as well as looking to collectively streamline opportunities for efficient coordination between community partners and intergovernmental partners. 231 00:35:16.686 --> 00:35:24.804 And then the second flavor of recommendation here is to lead advocacy for state fiscal reform, specifically around revenues. 232 00:35:25.320 --> 00:35:36.409 This recommendation recognizes that many of the challenges that limit our ability to grow revenue streams or increase increased flexibility of revenue streams is not isolated to the city and similarly impacts regional partners. 233 00:35:36.925 --> 00:35:48.365 In particular, the workgroup discussed the statewide impacts of property tax limitations, Measures 5 and 50, and other state fiscal policies that impact the city's finances either directly or indirectly. 234 00:35:50.179 --> 00:35:56.474 And the final area and recommendation was to reduce administrative burden and improve operational effectiveness. 235 00:35:57.382 --> 00:36:13.936 This area includes a bit more of the technical recommendations, including review of rules and systems for efficiency improvements, reviewing span of control, assessing contracts and contractors, and involving frontline workers, all of which are things that are currently being prioritized, as we'll see in the actions. 236 00:36:14.721 --> 00:36:23.721 So as we wrap up the workgroup recommendations, I wanted to also note that the workgroup did also identify some really important Thank you. 237 00:36:25.536 --> 00:36:28.460 And so these have been considered. 238 00:36:28.525 --> 00:36:33.797 I think you'll see these questions reflected in the upcoming implementation actions and other follow-up items. 239 00:36:34.313 --> 00:36:44.130 But certainly these are not the final answers to the questions, but wanted to be transparent about the questions that were kind of left here in the workgroup report. 240 00:36:44.838 --> 00:36:51.396 And then lastly, there were a handful of implementation considerations. 241 00:36:51.527 --> 00:36:57.353 And so again, these are These are things that I've attempted to start to seed and reflect in the actions. 242 00:36:58.610 --> 00:37:04.112 But just note there's a whole page of important questions identified for considerations in the report. 243 00:37:04.534 --> 00:37:06.121 And so I wanted to highlight that. 244 00:37:08.409 --> 00:37:09.898 All right. 245 00:37:10.141 --> 00:37:14.400 So I think I'm rocking and rolling through this and staying ahead of schedule. 246 00:37:14.465 --> 00:37:15.371 So this will be wonderful. 247 00:37:15.420 --> 00:37:16.797 I'm going to take a second to drink some water. 248 00:37:16.878 --> 00:37:17.202 Thank you. 249 00:37:19.717 --> 00:37:33.289 All right, so moving to the part of the presentation that I think will be of greatest interest, which is moving from the recommendations to specific implementation actions. 250 00:37:33.612 --> 00:37:55.393 What I'll present over the next 15 or so slides are potential actions, again, from my perspective as Chief Financial Officer, and I've attempted to translate these directly from the recommendations as written from the broader workgroup conversations and from input that I received from outside the workgroup, including intergovernmental partners, labor equity partners, and others. 251 00:37:56.003 --> 00:38:05.547 I'll also have a couple slides here that are actions that I think are of critical importance, but that were maybe not as directly reflected in the workgroup report. 252 00:38:05.610 --> 00:38:07.231 And so we want to fold those in as well. 253 00:38:07.775 --> 00:38:17.856 I certainly expect there will be other perspectives that supplement or modify these suggestions, including hearing from and CFO Beery, are you going to give us the color code on this one? 254 00:38:18.112 --> 00:38:19.351 I will give you a color code. 255 00:38:19.398 --> 00:38:19.463 Yep. 256 00:38:19.608 --> 00:38:20.813 Thank you for, thank you for that. 257 00:38:21.005 --> 00:38:23.753 You're, um, you're 3 sentences ahead of me. 258 00:38:24.460 --> 00:38:25.360 Um, thank you, Councilor. 259 00:38:25.826 --> 00:39:03.909 Um, so for each of the following slides, um, uh, just to set up, uh, what, what we're kind of going to do here is, um, I've attempted to identify within each of the recommendation buckets, uh, for each action, a potential timeline, who I think will be best to lead the effort, I also want to just acknowledge, um, it's sort of assumed that— well, it is assumed that council has the ultimate decision-making authority, and it's assumed that folks like the city administrator, myself as CFO, communications support, community engagement, equity support, those will overlay all or nearly all of the items. 260 00:39:03.956 --> 00:39:10.737 But we're really just looking to call out here there's specific connectivity or direct participation in an action is likely to be needed. 261 00:39:11.634 --> 00:39:40.061 I also say these actions have been developed with an intention of being sort of universally good, by which I mean that they're actions that I believe are good and valuable for council, for the nearly 8,000 city employees on the operational and administrative side from top to bottom, and ultimately for the Portlanders that we all to your question, Councilor, I've attempted to add some colored dots to indicate kind of how implementable I think an item may be. 262 00:39:40.655 --> 00:39:48.186 These are not to indicate a thumbs up or a thumbs down judgment, but really more as a guidepost to help inform a potential implementation strategy. 263 00:39:48.315 --> 00:39:56.086 So as we go through these, a green dot reflects an action that to me seems fairly clear and ready to go. 264 00:39:56.728 --> 00:39:58.173 A yellow dot or Yes. 265 00:39:58.239 --> 00:40:04.358 So the green dots are areas where there's some outstanding questions, some expected challenges, or we need to do a little bit more due diligence. 266 00:40:05.226 --> 00:40:09.884 Orange dots are things that I think will be very challenging, and so we'll see a few of those, not many, but a few. 267 00:40:10.300 --> 00:40:25.737 And then there's a few that are kind of clear or blank, and those are intended to signify areas where I think just need some additional specific direction from council or others in order to really identify a course of action and some of the details around timeline and responsibility. 268 00:40:26.862 --> 00:40:34.860 So again, I'll walk through each set of actions within a recommendation area, and then we'll come back after that. 269 00:40:34.942 --> 00:40:44.081 And I want to summarize all of that into a more strategic fashion with items suggested for immediate action, future action, outstanding questions. 270 00:40:44.659 --> 00:40:49.800 And again, as we did with recommendations, don't expect to go through every single item in great detail. 271 00:40:50.603 --> 00:40:52.675 You know, we are shortcutting for the presentation. 272 00:40:52.788 --> 00:40:56.047 They only have A sentence or two, maybe a phrase. 273 00:40:56.224 --> 00:41:02.920 And so there's a lot more probably under the hood that we can unpack, but want to get through as quickly as we can here in the first half of this meeting. 274 00:41:04.333 --> 00:41:07.206 All right, item 1. 275 00:41:08.378 --> 00:41:13.710 So this is within the first bucket, develop a more stable, sufficient, and equitable revenue strategy. 276 00:41:14.208 --> 00:41:18.945 The first item here is provide education of financial facts and regular council updates. 277 00:41:18.992 --> 00:41:19.105 Thank you. 278 00:41:20.226 --> 00:41:24.652 This is largely in development and under current work in progress. 279 00:41:25.132 --> 00:41:32.313 For example, we're currently enhancing information gathering and our ability to report out on contingencies, reserves, and fund balances. 280 00:41:32.827 --> 00:41:37.603 And we've recently had a separate work session to discuss continued major improvements to budget processes. 281 00:41:38.197 --> 00:41:48.014 But it would be valuable for sure to have feedback from council on preferred formats, forums, cadence, et cetera, if we do wish to formalize Aye. 282 00:41:49.628 --> 00:41:53.628 Item 2 is to prepare a report regarding current revenue sources. 283 00:41:54.483 --> 00:41:57.967 Some amount of updated revenue reporting is already in progress. 284 00:41:58.161 --> 00:42:06.784 We're improving our revenue forecast communications and other information improvements in the context of budget planning, work sessions, budget development, et cetera. 285 00:42:07.447 --> 00:42:14.731 But this specific action would be to produce a formal report with a standard and consistent set of measures and trade-off considerations Yes. 286 00:42:15.134 --> 00:42:29.197 That assesses major current city revenue streams, including things like fees and charges within CEDSA related to economic development, other fees or funds that sometimes might fly a bit underneath— under the radar. 287 00:42:30.449 --> 00:42:34.608 Item 3 would take that a step further to look at prospective revenue streams. 288 00:42:35.186 --> 00:42:44.994 And though I'd note our ability to execute that action will largely depend on working with Council Council to identify which revenue streams should be included in that assessment. 289 00:42:45.411 --> 00:42:59.585 So this is on a somewhat different timeline with the current revenue assessment coming first and then the prospective revenue report coming somewhat later, but hopefully using a consistent format and et cetera. 290 00:43:00.322 --> 00:43:05.972 And then the last potential action here is a little less clear as to how to proceed, ergo the clear dot. 291 00:43:06.742 --> 00:43:12.829 But this action could be to develop an actual policy or formal guidance document that frames the Yes. 292 00:43:12.829 --> 00:43:12.829 All right. 293 00:43:12.829 --> 00:43:17.789 So the idea is to align the city's desired structure characteristics and utilization goals around city revenue streams. 294 00:43:18.010 --> 00:43:20.349 It's potentially a pretty thorny path. 295 00:43:20.349 --> 00:43:25.280 I'm sure that'll be a robust discussion, but one that perhaps could be pursued. 296 00:43:26.369 --> 00:43:28.099 All right, moving quickly along. 297 00:43:29.630 --> 00:43:34.050 The second set of actions is around financial policies. 298 00:43:34.309 --> 00:43:53.407 Item 1 is to improve education of and compliance with current financial policies and So we begin here with another education-focused item, which is really to ensure that stakeholders across the organization have greater awareness and clearer understanding of existing financial policies. 299 00:43:53.905 --> 00:44:07.304 Frankly, over the last few years, as we've been scrambling to just maintain basic functionality and we've been experiencing significant staff turnover, we've lost some of that historical understanding of the whats and wherefores of financial policies. 300 00:44:07.353 --> 00:44:07.449 Thank you. 301 00:44:07.802 --> 00:44:18.762 In addition to elevating education about the policies, we should consider what enhancements may be viable to improve expectations and accountability for actually following those policies. 302 00:44:20.061 --> 00:44:28.838 Then items 2, 3, and 5, the green dots here on this page, are all pretty closely related but divided up to differentiate a few important details. 303 00:44:29.449 --> 00:44:35.402 I expect that items 2 and 3, which are updating financial policies and creating potential new policies, Yes. 304 00:44:35.884 --> 00:44:43.715 Would travel together, and I would hope to bring back that first package of policy change in early 2027 in advance of next year's budget conversations. 305 00:44:44.164 --> 00:45:07.063 Examples of critical updates here might include updates to things like FIN 2.03 around financial planning, 2.04 around budget process, 2.07 around reserve funds, and things like cleaning up legacy references to OMF, the old Office of Management and Finance, or other inconsistencies or language that's inconsistent with our current alignment. 306 00:45:08.630 --> 00:45:22.092 Examples of new policies might include things like creating new fund-specific reserves, might include forecasting-specific policy details around fund management responsibilities or other high-priority items we might identify. 307 00:45:23.746 --> 00:45:30.329 And then the second phase, item 5, the second phase of those policy updates would include things that are gonna be much more complicated to pin down. 308 00:45:31.184 --> 00:45:45.947 That might include things like pulling asset management out into its own policy item, might include things like cost allocation and general fund overhead or other items that require a lot more dialogue than we expect to have space for over the next few months. 309 00:45:46.590 --> 00:45:47.376 Excuse me. 310 00:45:47.552 --> 00:45:57.619 And then the fourth item is to, kind of going outta order here on this one, but fourth item is to perform a comprehensive evaluation of one-time funding Yes. 311 00:45:57.717 --> 00:45:59.503 Including programs and pilots. 312 00:45:59.972 --> 00:46:13.795 And really the goal would be to assist with clarity of information and decision-making about what might continue as one-time funded versus looking to shift to something that's not one-time funded, ongoing, or something that should be differently prioritized. 313 00:46:14.702 --> 00:46:19.425 And again, hoping to execute that before, in alignment with budget conversations. 314 00:46:20.811 --> 00:46:29.545 The next one under financial strategy and discipline The next one aligns to the recommendation around biennial budgeting. 315 00:46:30.153 --> 00:46:32.719 And I will editorialize a little here. 316 00:46:33.440 --> 00:46:43.202 I have some personal skepticism about whether biennial budgeting can result in meaningful improvement to fundamental stabilization of the city. 317 00:46:43.954 --> 00:46:50.478 But there is certainly strong passion about exploring the possibility, and these actions respect and acknowledge that suggestion. 318 00:46:50.527 --> 00:46:52.467 And I certainly don't disagree with, with doing the analysis. 319 00:46:52.547 --> 00:46:52.851 Thank you. 320 00:46:54.271 --> 00:46:59.135 So the first 2 recommendations relate to biennial budgeting specifically. 321 00:47:00.697 --> 00:47:22.038 The initial action would be to undertake a feasibility and readiness assessment, which would examine things like potential charter and legal provisions, readiness of the city's current technology and human systems to support that switch, council and public engagement expectations around a 2-year timeline, and other timeline and operational considerations. 322 00:47:22.103 --> 00:47:22.199 Thank you. 323 00:47:23.369 --> 00:47:28.949 Thank you. 324 00:47:31.617 --> 00:47:33.465 I think here we see the first appearance of an orange dot. 325 00:47:33.909 --> 00:47:40.467 It's not red because it's not impossible, but orange in prioritizing and implementing biennial budgeting. 326 00:47:41.126 --> 00:47:45.161 Obviously, any future decision would need to be based upon that readiness assessment. 327 00:47:45.782 --> 00:47:48.324 And so that would be of somewhat uncertain timing until we can do that. 328 00:47:48.516 --> 00:47:48.835 Yeah. 329 00:47:49.237 --> 00:47:52.233 And so that's why that's identified as an orange dot here. 330 00:47:53.563 --> 00:47:59.313 And then the last item on this slide is improving organizational structure and alignment for forecasting. 331 00:48:00.211 --> 00:48:05.130 This is on the front edge of being in motion, and it's something we can and probably should do. 332 00:48:05.898 --> 00:48:21.570 This work would likely need to occur over multiple years so we can define appropriate practices and expectations, establish communication, and identify pathways for communicating and sharing information That align to ongoing changes in the budget process. 333 00:48:22.659 --> 00:48:29.887 So I think you'll see some of this improvement happening in this year's budget cycle, including in the upcoming forecast in December. 334 00:48:29.951 --> 00:48:33.925 But a little bit in progress, but gonna be a long tail to get that work done. 335 00:48:35.414 --> 00:48:41.313 All right, moving to actions related to the second category of recommendations around decision support and government. 336 00:48:41.472 --> 00:48:43.764 Kind of a mishmash of different actions here. 337 00:48:44.677 --> 00:48:48.347 The first is to use strategic planning to define core services. 338 00:48:48.860 --> 00:48:55.715 And in this context, The term core services is meant to refer to what are the essential services expected by Portlanders. 339 00:48:55.764 --> 00:49:00.902 So thinking about things like transportation, utilities, public safety, et cetera. 340 00:49:01.369 --> 00:49:02.702 I'll fill in the blanks. 341 00:49:04.114 --> 00:49:12.273 You can likely already see a little bit of the connectivity with the recommendations here and the upcoming recommendations and upcoming actions related to regional coordination. 342 00:49:13.733 --> 00:49:19.608 This is a potential difficult and heavy lift, but I do believe Yes. 343 00:49:20.556 --> 00:49:28.963 And is likely to be aligned with the responsibilities of the newly created strategy and change management officer within the City Administrator's office. 344 00:49:30.422 --> 00:49:35.059 Second item is to establish service level expectations and to develop performance measures. 345 00:49:35.172 --> 00:49:46.043 And this is another one of those things that's always on the forefront of action and is somewhat in early, early motion via the emergence of that strategy Yes. 346 00:49:46.141 --> 00:49:59.679 The action specifically here is intended to be more than just sitting in a room and coming up with measures, but actually doing robust work to identify the right measures and institutionalizing the use of those measures in financial decision-making. 347 00:50:00.353 --> 00:50:10.757 And the last one here, again, is already in progress, which is to improve communication of current service commitments and trade-offs, especially if and when funding or prioritization of those commitments should change. 348 00:50:11.775 --> 00:50:26.965 The details here would include taking a consistent citywide approach involving frontline workers in the assessment of those service change impacts and developing more dependable protocols for reporting out, including enhanced use of dashboard-type information. 349 00:50:28.920 --> 00:50:34.192 All right, next item around data, data reliability and visibility. 350 00:50:34.467 --> 00:50:56.153 The first item in this category, assess and identify community data resources, was really rooted in the acknowledgment Uh, from the workgroup that there are lots of good sources of data that exist in the community, in the world, but the city has a tendency to navigate largely based upon data that's produced by or sanctioned specifically by the city. 351 00:50:56.923 --> 00:51:13.666 So the initial action here is to perform an inventory assessment of the data that currently exists and develop expectations to reasonably incorporate that data into the And again, I think this is another great example that really emphasizes the value of the workgroup's input. 352 00:51:14.293 --> 00:51:19.987 One of the things that was really important to me to acknowledge at the front edge of this work was that we typically don't know what we don't know. 353 00:51:20.548 --> 00:51:26.483 And so highlighting these additional data resources was really important to help bridge that knowledge gap. 354 00:51:27.943 --> 00:51:37.539 The second item here is one that I do want to highlight for a second, and that's improving financial impact assessments that accompany council Council legislation and other budget-related decision-making. 355 00:51:38.759 --> 00:51:45.871 This is an example of a handful of improvements that I think is of great interest to many and would be a very, very high value. 356 00:51:46.802 --> 00:51:55.920 But development of the right inputs and timeline expectations, assignment of responsibility for doing the assessments, that won't occur at the flip of a switch. 357 00:51:56.820 --> 00:52:04.077 If the goal was to implement the change as soon as possible, this would likely be the only action that we would be able to undertake in the near term. 358 00:52:04.125 --> 00:52:04.237 Thank you. 359 00:52:05.166 --> 00:52:07.556 Given bandwidth and other priorities. 360 00:52:08.373 --> 00:52:32.697 So the immediate action that I think we can take forward over the next 6 months or so, hopefully less, but is to convene a workgroup, a small workgroup to assess the needs, to consider the right information, responsibilities, and process, and then develop an executable timeline and strategy so that we can confidently and consistently put those improvements into practice as soon as practical during calendar 2027. 361 00:52:32.744 --> 00:52:32.889 Thank you. 362 00:52:32.969 --> 00:52:32.969 Second. 363 00:52:32.969 --> 00:52:32.969 Second. 364 00:52:32.969 --> 00:52:32.969 Second. 365 00:52:32.969 --> 00:52:32.969 Second. 366 00:52:32.969 --> 00:52:34.489 Motion passes 7-0. 367 00:52:34.489 --> 00:52:42.679 Third item on this slide, to identify and establish a primary access point for financial information, was also something called out specifically by the workgroup. 368 00:52:43.530 --> 00:52:54.840 I certainly have an opinion about where the most appropriate access point for financial information should reside, but I would look first to council for your thoughts and desired outcomes before recommending a specific path forward. 369 00:52:55.349 --> 00:53:01.829 And the last item under data reliability and visibility is to improve financial reporting systems and communications. 370 00:53:01.860 --> 00:53:02.132 Second. 371 00:53:02.532 --> 00:53:08.563 The suggested action here is to assemble a team to identify system gaps and develop recommendations. 372 00:53:09.333 --> 00:53:24.342 Given the various improvement and realignment efforts currently underway, I think this would optimally begin later in fiscal '26-'27 so we can proceed with this action with the benefit of understanding how the current improvements have shaken out. 373 00:53:24.985 --> 00:53:37.451 This work would also functionally need to likely begin after The bulk of next year's budget development work is completed in spring so we can prioritize getting that work done, including the budget process improvements that we'd like to prioritize. 374 00:53:40.800 --> 00:53:41.329 Next slide. 375 00:53:41.474 --> 00:53:41.891 Thank you. 376 00:53:42.840 --> 00:53:47.065 2 Potential— so this is under the Strengthen Council's Decision-Making Support. 377 00:53:47.338 --> 00:53:49.123 2 Potential actions suggested here. 378 00:53:49.652 --> 00:54:10.688 The first is already in progress, which is offering resources, enhanced resources and training In particular, the City Budget Office is already scheduling opportunities for drop-in conversations, and we're always willing to be invited onto council or committee agendas to provide financial or budget information as council pleases. 379 00:54:11.443 --> 00:54:18.717 Additionally, the City Administrator's Office is improving citywide protocols and expectations in response to the prior budget note about information access. 380 00:54:20.177 --> 00:54:24.706 The second item is another that will need some input and direction from council before we can move to a vote. 381 00:54:24.769 --> 00:54:25.364 Councilmember Herbold. 382 00:54:26.534 --> 00:54:41.110 The workgroup identified value in having dedicated and consistent analytical access for council, much like we've modeled over the past 2 years with the partial-time appointment of a kind of concierge CBO analyst during the heat of budget cycle. 383 00:54:42.474 --> 00:54:46.259 But there's multiple approaches that we could take here, all of which will have costs and trade-offs. 384 00:54:46.402 --> 00:54:55.190 And so we stand ready to support any further council conversation around All right. 385 00:54:55.934 --> 00:54:58.356 Moving to recommendation area 3. 386 00:54:59.148 --> 00:55:14.911 Many of the action items on this and the next slide are largely outside of the financial realm directly, but certainly connect to broader service prioritization and clarity of decision-making, including the prior action around defining core city services. 387 00:55:15.427 --> 00:55:18.041 However, the first 2 items here are directly financial related. 388 00:55:18.090 --> 00:55:18.186 Thank you. 389 00:55:19.626 --> 00:55:20.579 Thank you. 390 00:55:21.500 --> 00:55:26.927 The first item came directly out of the initial meeting of the aforementioned interagency support team. 391 00:55:27.621 --> 00:55:41.210 One of the key takeaways from assembling that room was that participants immediately agreed that there was high value in bringing together regional financial leadership to talk about shared challenges, operational practices, and communication alignment. 392 00:55:41.695 --> 00:55:45.849 The workgroup also agreed this was important to a healthy regional financial ecosystem. 393 00:55:46.235 --> 00:55:47.423 So this one's kind of a no-brainer. 394 00:55:47.744 --> 00:55:56.081 I anticipate looking to set up a regular cadence, potentially quarterly, as soon as feasible, so we can reap the benefits of those conversations. 395 00:55:57.222 --> 00:56:15.672 Second item here is to put some additional coordination and consistency to development of intergovernmental agreements, or IGAs, including developing enhanced training on what makes a good IGA, which would be one that balances durability and flexibility And potentially developing a specific policy to guide IGA development. 396 00:56:16.980 --> 00:56:32.103 The last 2 actions here are valid future actions, but really are dependent on completion of our in-house work to identify our own service priorities and expectations, as previously described under the section related to Recommendation 2A. 397 00:56:34.262 --> 00:56:47.371 And then the second bucket around regional coordination and advocacy The actions here are a little more nebulous, at least to me, and lean heavily on the Office of Government Relations, or OGR, as referenced on the slide. 398 00:56:48.143 --> 00:56:50.213 The general intent of these actions is twofold. 399 00:56:50.358 --> 00:56:57.568 First is to improve our ability to respond to new or proposed state legislation that has material financial impact to the city. 400 00:56:58.322 --> 00:57:11.085 And the second is to undertake a coordinated effort to drive and advocate for legislative reforms to address issues that either incur material costs to the city Yes. 401 00:57:11.182 --> 00:57:22.063