Understanding the inner workings at large

Two new members joined the Bossier City Council earlier this month, which seems to be the catalyst for Council President Jeff Darby’s request to Mayor Lorenz “Lo” Walker to provide three city nance workshops in the coming weeks.

Per Darby’s letter to the Mayor: “We request that the nance director prepare a PowerPoint presentation to fully outline all the inner workings of the city’s  nances, including all accounts, breakdowns of all income and expenditures and have hard copies to hand out to the councilmen. These workshops will assist new councilmen and the public to better understand the full nancial picture of the city and provide transparency to the public.” Darby requested the workshops be set for 3 p.m. July 23; immediately following the council’s agenda meeting July 30; and immediately following the council’s agenda meeting Aug. 13.

I applaud Darby’s effort and goal; a better understanding of how our local governments work, particularly with respect to how they are nanced would go a long way to increasing the public’s interest and responsibility. But – due respect to council member Darby, whose nearly two decades of council experience and annual budget work far eclipse my years of following this process – the planned workshop trifecta won’t come close to meeting the goal of Darby’s request for a couple of reasons.

First, the city’s annual budgets provide “breakdowns of all income and expenditures,” and these are readily available to anyone, council member or member of the public, to review at any time. But the related “inner workings of the city’s nances” is a whole other issue that involves at least a degree of understanding government  nance, a fairly complex and highly regulated area of government.

Just a passing “outline” of this critical part of the subject would fall far short of Darby’s goal. But Bossier City Finance Director Joe Buf ngton is exceedingly quali ed to provide what’s really needed: a “101” course on the “inner working of the city’s  nances.” Buf ngton’s long list of educational, professional and experience credentials are a reason to reconsider the three-workshop plan in favor of something along the line of a semester-length course that would likely be of signi cantly more bene t to both council members and the public.

Then there’s the consideration of pairing such a civic education outreach with the reality that comes with planning the city’s 2014 general fund and related budgets. An often-encountered public perception of local government  nance is that a city such as Bossier City just has a “big black pot” in which all city revenues are deposited, and the spending of those proceeds is at the whim of the elected of cials. In reality and in the case of Bossier City and most municipalities, a variety of accounts and carefully crafted spending plans exist to meet a variety of needs of the subject community – transportation systems, utility systems, public safety – and the people to manage all of those functions.

If the goal is to provide a good understanding of Bossier City’s  nances and transparency to the public, three short workshops will likely be more confusing than bene cial. Perhaps a reconsideration that will allow this effort to be held in concert with 2014 budget planning and a longer course of “study” would better meet Darby’s well-intentioned goal.

Marty Carlson, a freelance writer, has been covering local news for the past 13 years. She can be reached via email at [email protected].