3. Identify an objective interdisciplinary team to evaluate budget requests and proposals and make recommendations based on current fiscal year overview.

For each priority, cities should consider who will review and evaluate the proposals and make recommendations for funding to the mayor, city manager, or senior leadership. The team is often an interdepartmental group of leaders, but may also include executive and central administration staff or even community members. The team will be charged with scoring and ranking budget proposals that will advance progress on these citywide goals. They may also be responsible for working through the performance-based budgeting process with proposal writers, providing feedback and guidance along the way. Usually, the team will evaluate proposals based on KPIs, guidelines, and criteria distributed to departments in preparation for budget proposals, as described above.

Bellevue, WA, uses Results Teams to evaluate proposals through its performance-based budget program, Budget One. There is one team for each priority area that is charged with evaluating budget proposals, working with proposal writers to improve their proposals, and providing funding recommendations to the city’s Leadership Team. The city manager selects Results Team members and being chosen is seen as an honor. Members come from different departments and levels of the organization (from professional staff and frontline workers to managers), bringing unique mindsets to the evaluation process. While all Results Team members are city staff, they are conscious about evaluating proposals from a community and resident perspective. For more information about Bellevue’s Results Teams and their role in performance-based budgeting, see pages 5-4–5-6 in the city’s 2015–2016 Budget and 2015–2021 Capital Investment Program Plan.

Bellevue is in the process of revamping its scoring criteria for budget proposals to further encourage collaboration between Results Teams and proposal writers by providing multiple occasions to discuss and revise the proposals, while also elevating the quality of the performance metrics supporting these proposals. During this budget cycle, Results Teams will score both the performance metrics and proposal as a whole with a high-medium-low scale. Proposals must meet a minimum score on their performance metrics before being recommended for funding.

See Appendix C for performance-based budgeting scoring criteria from Baltimore and Chattanooga.