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CITY OF GLENDALE, CALIFORNIA
REPORT TO THE CITY COUNCIL
AGENDA ITEM
Report: Fiscal Year 2027-28 Budget Development Public Engagement Plan
1. Motion to approve the recommended Fiscal Year 2027-28 Budget Development Public Engagement Plan
2. Resolution of appropriation
COUNCIL ACTION
Item Type: Action Item
Approved for September 29, 2026 calendar
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Each year, the City Council, City Manager, and staff spend a significant amount of time preparing and developing the budget for the next fiscal year. During the fiscal year 2026-27 budget adoption, the City Council provided feedback on continued improvement to the budget development process. Subsequently at the Council meeting on August 25, 2026, Councilmember Bartrosouf initiated a discussion about strengthening public engagement during the budget development process. While the City currently shares budget information through public meetings, published documents, and digital communication channels, opportunities exist to increase resident involvement and allow for interactive input in the process.
Councilmember Bartrosouf’s request included three key points:
1. Moving the budget study sessions to the time of the day more accessible to the public.
2. Developing simpler and more effective ways to share departmental budget information.
3. Interactive survey or outreach process where the public can provide input on the budget discussions.
In response, staff evaluated best practices used by comparable agencies and developed a public engagement plan. Staff recommend a multi-faceted public engagement plan designed to broaden participation, increase transparency, and foster a more inclusive budgeting process informed by City Council priorities and public input.
The recommended process spans from November 2026 to June 2027. 10d 2
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RECOMMENDATION
That the City Council approve the FY 2027-28 Budget Development Public Engagement Plan and provide direction for staff to proceed with implementation.
ANALYSIS
The multi-faceted public engagement plan includes three aspects of improvements responding to the City Council’s requests as listed below:
1. More accessible budget study session time:
• Schedule future budget study sessions within typical after work hours, between 6 PM and 10 PM.
2. Simpler and more effective ways to share overall budget information to the public:
• Budget in Brief:
Develop and publish an easy-to-read Budget in Brief document that summarizes the City’s key budget and financial information. This document will have heavier emphasis on the General Fund since it holds the majority of the City’s discretionary funding sources. • Department fact sheets:
The City Manager’s Office will develop an annual year-in-review document that provides an overview of each department’s operational and service level snapshots.
3. Interactive survey and outreach process:
• Online Digital Engagement Tool (November – December 2026):
One of the best practices that helps other cities in gathering public input is through an online digital engagement platform. Staff propose to launch a digital budget engagement tool (budget simulator) where the public can provide input by adding or removing resources among various City departments and programs to balance the budget. Staff reviewed multiple tools and examples from other local agencies across the US. One of the most popular digital tools available is BalancingAct by Polco. BalancingAct is being used by multiple city governments across the nation, and yielding positive results in engaging with the public and gathering input. Staff recommend implementing BalancingAct or a similar tool to support the online digital engagement activities. A list of Public Engagement Tool examples is provided in Exhibit 1.
Once this tool is developed and tested, the Finance department will partner with Management Services’ communications team to conduct extensive public outreach and promote this interactive tool for members of the public to provide their input.
Staff plan to implement and keep the tool open for about six weeks (ideally between November 1, 2026, and December 15th, 2026) to collect input. 10d 3
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Once the open period is completed, the Finance Department will analyze and consolidate the data collected and provide a summary for the City Council, City Manager, and department heads to use as informational reference during the budget development process.
• In-person or Online Live Engagement (January – March 2027):
In addition to digital on-demand engagement, another best practice in enhancing public engagement is to host live in-person or online sessions to provide information to the public, answer questions and gather input from the public. The live in-person or virtual sessions can take a variety of forms including:
1. During the early stage of budget development (January 1, 2027 to March 31, 2027), hold geographically distributed live in-person workshops to capture input from public members from different areas of the City. Translation services will be available.
2. Participate and partner at various community organization meetings or events to engage with public members and gather input from the public.
3. After the proposed budget is developed and published, hold regularly scheduled virtual Financial Budget Open Hours in the Finance Department for members of the public to ask questions and get clarification of the City’s budget.
Aligning public input with Council priorities and integrating into the Budget Development Process
The public input information gathered through the public engagement activities will be available to the City Council, the City Manager, and all department heads; and the information will serve as one of the considerations in FY 2027-28 Budget Development Process. The Budget Development Process with integration of public input is outlined below:
• October 2026: At the City Council Governance & Priority Goal Setting Workshop, establish priorities and develop a process on how the public input gathered from the public engagement activities will be integrated into identified priority areas.
• November to December 2026: Conduct online digital public engagement activities while departments are developing FY 2027-28 budget requests. o Data from the public engagement activities will be compiled into a report highlighting key public themes, concerns, and insights. o The report compiled will be shared with the City Council, City Manager and all department leadership. Departments will include the public input as a part of the information considerations for the departmental budget development in January. Public input will be mapped to potential budget actions or trade-off decisions for the City Council to consider.
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• January to March 2027:
o The City Manager will incorporate the Council priorities, input gathered from the public engagement activities, and departmental operational needs into a set of clear budget directions. The budget directions will provide guidance to the departments in developing the departmental budget.
o Live in-person or virtual budget sessions will be held at various locations to continue gathering public input on the City’s budget priorities.
• April 2027:
o The Finance Department Budget Section consolidates all department’s requested budget and any City Manager’s
adjustments into the FY 2027-28 Proposed Budget for the City Manager’s review and approval.
o Publish the FY 2027-28 Proposed Budget on the City’s website • May to June 2027:
o Schedule and hold Finance Budget Open Hours for the public to engage and ask questions about the City’s Proposed Budget. o Hold Four Budget Study Sessions for the City Council to discuss the Proposed Budget. Public comment periods will be available at these study sessions.
• June 2027: Public Hearing and City Council’s Adoption of the FY 2027-28 Budget. Public comment periods will be available at the City Council meeting.
While the public engagement activities will provide the City additional public input information to inform the budget development process, it is essential for the City Council and the leadership team to reflect the priorities for the community at large. The information gathered through these recommended public engagement activities will supplement other established public input channels. The public input information gathered should be included as an important part but not the entirety of information for consideration in the budget development process, recognizing that the City must balance community needs and priorities with available resources and the City’s longterm financial sustainability.
STAKEHOLDERS/OUTREACH
No public outreach has been conducted yet. Outreach will be conducted in accordance with Council direction on the public engagement plan, with opportunities for public input provided throughout the budget process. Early online digital engagement will allow residents to share their priorities before the budget is developed to inform the process, while additional opportunities, including in-person public sessions during budget development and Finance Budget Open Hours following publication of the proposed 10d 5
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budget, will allow residents to ask questions, seek clarification, and provide feedback before the budget is adopted. This approach will support a more accessible and community-informed budget process.
FISCAL IMPACT
Implementation will require some modest investment in internal and external costs. With the assumption of the full implementation of the online digital tools, and two to four live in-person or online public sessions, the total cost for the implementation is estimated at $79,000 recurring annually, with an additional $9,000 for the first year set up.
The above costs include internal costs of additional staff time (estimated at $50,000 recurring annually) and internal service costs from ITD for the first year set up (estimated at $9,000 non-recurring). External costs include procuring the online digital tool (estimated at $12,000 recurring annually), workshop logistics (estimated at $2,000 recurring annually), contracted services for public meeting facilitation (estimated at $15,000 recurring annually). In addition, a 10% project contingency of $9,000 is included to cover any unforeseeable costs.
This amount is not included in the FY 2026-27 adopted budget. Staff are requesting an appropriation of $97,000 from the General Fund undesignated fund balance.
The appropriation request is outlined below:
Requesting Appropriation
Amount From (Account String) To (Account String) Funding Source $50,000 25300-1010-000 41300-1010-FIN-3505 General Fund $47,000 25300-1010-000 43110-1010-FIN-3505 General Fund Department Cost Center Program
Finance Budget
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW (CEQA/NEPA)
This item is related to a government fiscal activity – the budget process - and is therefore not a “project” under CEQA Guidelines Section 15378(b)(4).
CAMPAIGN DISCLOSURE
This item is exempt from campaign disclosure requirements.
ALTERNATIVES TO STAFF RECOMMENDATION
City Council may choose any other alternative not proposed by staff.
ADMINISTRATIVE ACTION
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Submitted by:
Jack Liang, Director of Finance
Prepared by:
Jack Liang, Director of Finance
Karina Cervantes-Vazquez, Deputy Director of Finance
Approved by:
Roubik R. Golanian, P.E., City Manager
EXHIBITS/ATTACHMENTS
Exhibit 1 – List of Public Engagement Tool Examples