Lakeland Budget Case Study

The budget process for the City of Lakeland is vital to our citizens, the services that are provided and the departments that provide those services. It is the City of Lakeland’s goal to provide a performance budgeting process that is clear, concise and priority-driven. To that end, I would like to propose a budget process that will begin with a Strategic Plan of action and culminate in a balanced budget that will help the City of Lakeland achieve its operational goals. Budget development would begin with a Strategic Planning process that will help Lakeland set budget priorities based on feedback from both the community and city leaders. This will allow us to concentrate our resources in order to accomplish the City goals while keeping in line with our mission and vision for Lakeland’s future. The process would start with a Community Values Survey that is made available to the citizens of greater Lakeland as well as visitors and users of city services. This survey …show more content…
Key staff members will create a proposed business plan and create presentations on actionable items as well as develop priorities and objectives moving forward. These presentations will outline staff recommendations to be given to the Commission at a Business Planning Retreat. During the Business Planning Retreat the Commission members will be listen to department presentations and will be able to interact with key staff members, ask questions and provide input. This portion of the budget process will be vital in helping the Commissioners to set their priorities for budget concentration moving forwards. The next step will be to develop a Business Plan from the Strategic Plan. The Business Plan will include action items, success indicators based on operations and identify areas for