KALAMAZOO (WKZO-AM) — The Kalamazoo City Commission got an update on the city’s effort to convert to a computerized priority-based budgeting system, which will give them a view of their budget they’ve never seen before.
The system lists all the city’s programs, how much they cost, how well they met city goals, how valued each program is by the public, how many employees it takes to provide certain services, and whether services are mandated.
Until now, commissioners could only guess at some of those facts.
“It’s that black box, we’re really breaking down that black box of government,” City Manager Jim Ritsema said Monday.
The system is supposed to make the process more objective, and will make the information more-accessible to the public down the line.
“Especially as we start determining how we’re going to start measuring success,” Ritsema said. “What does success look like for a safe community? How do we know what we’re achieving in the programs that we offer? That’s the next step of this.”
Kalamazoo is the first city in Michigan to use the database. Battle Creek is also working on adopting it.
It can take some time to load the data, and learning how to properly use it and manipulate it to best effect can take years, Ritsema said.
– John McNeill
