At the request of Councilmember Gerrie Schipske, and as part of the community engagement effort for the Fiscal Year 2011 (FY 11) budget development, the Department of Financial Management is inviting you and the public to join a live webconference hosted by ICMA and the City of Evanston, IL, in the Long Beach City Council Chambers on June 10, 2010 from 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Webconferences are opportunities for communities throughout the United States to come together to learn about best practices ask questions and share information with each other regarding their budget challenges via the Internet.
The webconference is entitled "Engaging Citizens to Cut Budgets: How One City Cut $9.5 Million from the Budget in Just Two Months." The public is invited to join City staff for this 90-minute interactive webconference in which they will hear how the City of Evanston, IL, implemented a process to set priorities and eliminate their nearly $10 million budget deficit. Expert presenters will share how the citizen engagement process helped maintain civility, created a continuing dialogue, and limited the amount of special interest lobbying at the final City Council budget meetings. Topics covered will also include:
Benefits of engaging citizens in the budget process;
- Strategies and tips to create a successful citizen engagement experience;
- How to make the experience authentic for citizens; and
- Tools and activities to support and encourage this process.
Those in attendance will then have an opportunity to ask the speakers questions directly during the Question/Answer session in the last 30 minutes.