Edina Citizens Help City Shape 2012 Budget

The City of Edina is attempting a novel concept as staff plans its 2012 budget: Crowdsourcing.

Rather than simply crafting a budget that fit the needs of city staff, City Manager Scott Neal wants to call on the expertise of Edina citizens to help make some difficult decisions.

"People never fail to surprise you," Neal said. "When they're confronted with the same kind of trade-offs that we are as public servants and have a chance to think about it, they often reach the same conclusions that we do."

At the city's fourth—and presumably last—citizen budget workshop, Nov. 29 at Braemar Golf Course, close to 20 Edina residents spent two hours voicing opinions on everything from the city's enterprise facilities to what should be done with a $2.5 million surplus.

Edina's enterprise facilities—Braemar Arena, Edinborough Park, Centennial Lakes Park and the Edina Art Center—currently operate at a loss. At the workshop, residents tended to support making Braemar and Edinborough self-supporting, though they were split on Centennial, while most wanted to maintain or increase current subsidies at the Art Center.

As for the budget surplus, Neal proposed using $700,000 to cover some construction projects, with an additional $300,000 going toward technology and human resources projects. The remainder, he suggested, would be used to create property tax savings for residents through debt service, pre-paying special assessments and pre-paying bonds. Many workshop attendees wanted to use a higher amount of the money for debt retirement.

Joe Gorecki, a resident of southeast Edina for 11 years, attended the workshop at the urging of his neighbor.

"We'll talk about politics in the driveway and stuff like that," Gorecki said. "He approached me the other day and said I should head out to this and share my thoughts."

Gorecki said the inherent problem of workshops is that residents are often allowed only to select from a small subset of options rather than generate their own ideas. He was grateful that wasn't the case with this workshop, as he said it allowed a better conversation to take place.

"I actually thought the (city's budget) plan they initially showed was well thought-out," Gorecki said.

The citizen budget workshops are a first for a Minnesota community, according to Stacy Becker with the Citizens League. Becker said Neal approached her with the concept earlier this year, though she was somewhat wary at first.

"The first question I asked him was 'Why are you doing this?'" Becker said. "I told him if it was just to get some affirmation of decisions that've already been made, that's not really what we do."

As she learned more about Neal's goals for the workshops, she said it was a no-brainer for the Citizens League to get involved. By engaging citizens directly in the budget dialogue before decisions are made, she said, people tend to be more receptive to pitching in.

"Give people an opportunity, and they'll be really thoughtful and think deeply about the issues," she said. "That's the reason why we ask people to share."

The city's proposed 2012 budget is close to $30.6 million, while the maximum property tax levy increase would be 1.8 percent—$462,009.

The summarized findings from the workshops will be presented to the City Council on Dec. 6, during a public hearing on the budget and tax levy. The council will act on the budget and levy during its Dec. 20 meeting.