Budget Manual 2020

Budget Manual

departments should target services that provide benefits to individuals or specific groups. When forwarding proposals to Budget & Evaluation, departments should briefly describe the service for which a user fee is being proposed, explain why the service is a potential candidate for a user fee, and provide any data that would be useful in determining the cost of the service (i.e. staff time involved in delivering the service). Departments should also reach out to community stakeholders for input on the proposed fees. User Fee Request forms can be found here. Service Enhancements: Funding Requests for New or Expanded Services After appropriate budget targets are established, departments can make budget requests for additional personnel, programs, expanded services, or vehicle and equipment costs through the Service Enhancement process. Service Enhancement Requests are generally due in December, before base budget submittals are due. Please refer to the Budget Calendar for specific dates. Service enhancements are first submitted as pre-requests, reviewed for further analysis by the manager’s office, and ultimately approved (or not) through the budget development process. Service Enhancement Pre-request Form The pre-request form is the first stage of the Service Enhancement process in which departments provide summary information about their Service Enhancement Requests. Departments and budget representatives will be provided details about the pre-request process. Completed pre-request forms should be saved to the shared folder, noted in an email distributed during the process. If you need additional support completing the pre-request form or have questions about the process in general, please contact your assigned budget and management analyst. The City Manager’s Office will select submittals from the pre-requests and refer them to Budget for further review. Departments will then be notified of selections in early January, with the formal Service Enhancement Requests due in late January. Formal Submittal Process If a submittal was referred by the City Manager’s Office, departments will need to enter request details into the budget system. Details will be shared via email about the entry process. Generally, departments complete the Service Enhancement Request Form, enter the questions and answers, and enter budget details into the budget system. The form and instructions are available here. Vehicles/Equipment • Vehicle and Equipment Request forms will need to be completed and uploaded into the Questica Service Enhancement module for new vehicle/equipment requests, for review by the Equipment Services Manager and Budget & Evaluation. Service Enhancement requests should include the full cost of the new vehicle and the annual lease rate. Departments should also consider budgeting additional fuel costs for vehicles.

Operating Budget Instructions A-6