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i - FINANCIER: Case Study _ have . .:1,.,' now been measured topro- gettingthe budget book a few days cities ject potential annual savings of about before the council vote. " , $100,000 in administrative or proce- Other important byproducts of the dural changes and paper efficiencies. program included establishment of a ' _ The seminars were based on the con- management 'information system .for cept that the. people that are doing a several police departments, including I .. specific job know that job best. They Montebello's, " throughput the San are best able to solve their own prob= Gabriel Valley, and a plan . for city ', lems. To this knowledge, the urban financial officers to make their invest- • teams brought expertise in work flow ment funds work better by pooling diagramming, floor plan layout, paper , them in a state investment program. management and improved communi- cations. But it was the employees them- ®they Gratifying Results selves who evolved the money-saving The project's success has brought plans for identifying waste and improv- other gratifying results. Under the ing the productivity of their own ef- leadership.of the Council'of Northeast I forts in their own departments. Economic Action, working with the " • First National Bank of.Boston, the pro- . " •"Longer-Term Changes gram is being adapted to the needs of In addition, there have been other several.small and medium-sized New " longer-term changes in the first-year ,, England cities, whose leadership had cities. In Saratoga, the data provided identified some ofthe early warning has been of significant help in city, signs of decay in financial planning. council decisions on land development ' In Seattle, Rainier National Bank is I projects, and an economist has been putting together •a small pilot effort ! hired to continue refining the task organizing teams to assist two or three j ' force data on land use planning. In a small cities in the.Puget Sound area. _ largely residential comfnunity, where ' We have also had talks with Philip- there is little desire to bring"in'com- pine government officials -who, saw ' mercial development — and its tax ":ways 'in which certain aspects of a income — that type of economic input similar private/public sector'program • can have important ramifications for could aid municipalities there. " growth. . And in the aftermath of Proposition – In Montebello, service-level budget- 13,-the California Roundtable, ,an or- , ing is now a fact of life. The first step at ganization of presidents and chairmen mid-range departmental planning and of the 'state's major corporations, .cre- . • overall long-range strategic planning ated a statewide Loaned Executive Pro- have been completed. For the first time gram = to extend the reach of the ' _ - in the city's history, the study served to models we made, widely across the persuade:elected council members to state to assistcounties, "water and- go away on a brief retreat with depart- school districts, public library systems ment heads several months before the and other Government units with the ' . next year's budget' was prepared, so financial management and planning they'd have a better understanding of they need now, more than ever. D ❑ ❑ what,goes into it — rather than just ' . FINANCIERY •Februar 1979 41