Alexandria is adopting a new budget policy that requires the city to place a price on each action it takes in order to make departments accountable for spending and to inform residents about how tax dollars are being spent.
The new policy, known as the Managing for Results Initiative, will be included beginning with the fiscal year 2008 budget and was outlined in a June memo from City Manager James Hartmann.
The city held a meeting with senior management to discuss the plan late last month.
“These budget changes relate to a migration to a program- and activity-based budget and financial management with an emphasis on clearer statements of goals and objectives and appropriate measures of results,” Hartmann wrote in the memo.
Hartmann said the policy would help develop a citywide business plan and allow officials to plan more effectively.
“This plan will encourage program planning, evaluation and management based on results such as service quality, efficiency and commuting impact,” he wrote.
Morgan Routt, a budget and management analyst for the city, said the plan has been well-received within the city bureaucracy. He said the plan provides more clarity on how department budgets are being spent.
“We will assign costs for individual activities and then measure the level of service and performance for that activity,” he said.
Routt said the policy did not stem from mismanagement of city money, but from a desire for greater transparency in city fiscal affairs.
“It’s about accountability and being able to better articulate to the community what the city government is spending money on,” he said.
