Nowadays, with money being so tight, budget time for government agencies calls for creative planning and innovative ideas. Back in the 70's, at the NPD we had some innovative ideas, too. Just to make things easier and not pee anyone off. Although the procedure was never spoken of, it was a workable constant, that every department head knew. At least we did at the PD. It worked like this.
The City Council would get word to the City Manager how much--what percentage--they were willing to raise the budget for the upcoming year. For the sake of easy math, let's say the example year would be 5%. This amount was relayed to the department heads. Then the skullduggery began.
At the PD we'd work out a budget with a legitimate 5% increase, then boost it by 10%. This was forwarded to the City Manager as a 15% requested increase.
The City Manager, to do his job as scrupulous guardian of the public funds, would study our budget and cut 5%. Looked good. He'd lopped off an amount before the budget was forwarded to the City Council for final approval. And we still had in it what we really wanted plus and extra 5%.
Next the City Council sweated over the proposed spending plan and, finally, after much deliberation, were able to cut off another 5%. That was 10% cut by the City Manager and the City Council.
The public loved it. And so did we. We got the 5% we really wanted and everyone was happy.
The games folks are sometimes required to play are, to my mind, unnecessary. One of my main problems was turning down officers and money we didn't need but the public clamored for us to accept.
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