| City Commission Work Session | Mayor Joan Bennett presiding |
CALL TO ORDER: 4:45 P.M.
PRESENT: Mayor Bennett, Commissioners Beecher, Downer, Gray, and Rosenbaum. Also present were City Manager, City Attorney, Directors of Community Development, Acting Director of the Fairgrounds, Park & Recreation, Fiscal Control, Management Information Services, Planning, Library, Public Works, Fire Chief, Police Chief, and City Clerk.
Coleen Balzarini, City Controller, and Tim Magee, MIS/Budget, reviewed methods of reviewing the financial conditions for the City of Great Falls. This report was done in preparation for the budgeting process which will begin in December. The City Commission requested that a new budget process be developed in order for them to have an opportunity to address policy issue prior to the development of the budget. In the past, the Commission reviewed the proposed budget, and in some instances, the City Commission could not respond or redirect some of the directions taken due to the late date of the budget reviews. This new process will involve the Commission at the policy development level. Following 20 hours of work sessions, the Commission will develop a list of policies they want Staff to incorporate into the next fiscal year. Staff will then begin develop policy based budgets and report back to the Commission in early 1999 on how many of the policies could be funded and at what level.
There being no further business to come before the Commission, the regular work session on December 1, 1998, adjourned at 5:45 p.m.