Where's Waldo

Nowadays, when I say games, most people think about video games. That's ok. Our family likes board games, so when I say games, I mean games in general. Perhaps this is a generational thing? Although I have an app on my phone, it is definitely a "video game" – Clash of Clans. Apps on your phone are more than just games, but many people are engaging in fun distractions like Candy Crush or Fruit Ninja.

Friends, this will be brief but I do hope it is impactful.

Please have a quick read of a recent article in the Sherwood Park News. It is from our Mayor Rod Frank. He participated in the recent Priority Based Budgeting Master Class that I hosted through a partnership with Municipal World Magazine. https://www.sherwoodparknews.com/opinion/columnists/moneyball-finding-a-better-way-to-do-municipal-budgets Mayor Frank brings up the term Moneyball. This became popular in the world of Major League Baseball when the manager of the Oakland As was devising a way to compete with other teams who had little to no constraints in terms of their budget to spend on salaries. The result was delving into what might be termed today as "advanced stats". In short, what were the skills required of players in different positions that lead to the most wins. Was paying to acquire the players who hit the most home runs translating into winning more games and subsequently championships? The Mayor is suggesting that he will not necessarily be looking at the end result of a budget first (a tax rate - wins in baseball) but mining from within that budget to see which of the items (programs) move his municipal government closer to winning more championships (in my opinion providing the most genuine well being). Ironically, successfully mining for value and not thinking lowering taxes first, leads to a smaller ask for more resources due to reallocating and repurposing within programs and forgoing resource asks in those lower value programs. The same strategies can be applied in any organization, in any sector and even on a more personal level for individuals and families. I highly encourage you to check out www.kellyrudyk.com if you are intrigued about these concepts on that personal level. Best to you all. Namaste. Kelly (This blog was originally posted on Oct 11, 2020 by Kelly Rudyk)

If ever there were a time to rethink what it is we are doing in the world of budgeting wouldn't it be now? Most of my clients are in the municipal world and are seeing unprecedented challenges on the revenue side of their budgets. Whether they are encountering abandoned well sites with no tools to capture taxes, a big bill from the Province for their enhanced police services, a new formula from which to calculate assets in the category called machinery and equipment or for the bigger cities reneging on an agreed to City Charter. However, the revenue issues seem to not only be in the municipal sector. Many businesses have been negatively impacted by this downturn in consumers disposable incomes and non-profits have also taken a hit. Many of those I have been able to help with a targeted and strategic approach to future budgeting came to me suggesting they were not feeling right about employing their typical budgeting methods any longer. These, very common, budget tools are what I like to call "band-aid budgeting". Here are some of the "tactics" employed in band-aid budgeting: Across the board cuts. Here, everyone in the organization is asked to cut a certain percentage of expenses in their own operations to assist in balancing with the revenue shortfalls. Some have tried, in the past, to make them sound more strategic than they are by calling them something like the "3% initiative". Terms like being more efficient come up. This is not an efficiency effort - it is a cut and it is most often arbitrary. Look at our actuals. This is where we ask those responsible for the budget to look at a historical spend in their budget lines and find where we have been consistently seeing surpluses. This, to me, is more legitimate than the across the board cut idea but still does not move it away from my own category of being a band-aid budgeting tactic. It assumes we are doing the right things at the right levels but just over charging for that service or program. Use the surplus or reserves. Both of these are wrong for similar reasons but show up often in the municipal world. They have even been encouraged by the Province in education (Wow). Using the surplus from last year's budget to offset issues for an upcoming year suggests than you will need to bank on that same surplus next year, assume revenue issues will be sorted out next year or find equivalent yearly savings on the expense side in upcoming budgets (why not do this now instead?). Reserves are useful tools to address typically capital spends of a certain magnitude that requires years of investment to make them feasible. These are intended as one time expenditures. The funds are targeted to a certain type of spend as well. Typical reserves may be road construction, recreation amenities and water/wastewater infrastructure. If money is "borrowed" from these reserves the intended use of those funds is impacted (this year and years to come). And because the budget has ongoing expenditures it supports and not one time, this reserve "fix" is temporary and definitely misaligned. There are many other no-nos in the budgeting world but these are the main culprits of band-aid budgeting. I will submit to you that what we are doing right now is not really budgeting. We are really accounting. The goal is too often to balance the budget. And yes, especially in the municipal world, this is important because it is mandated. But, at the end of the day, a balanced budget gets you a pat on the back and is an important part of an "unqualified opinion" from your auditors. Don't get me wrong, I am sure there are some citizens who feel very secure in knowing the budget is balanced and we get this opinion. And believe me I am in no way undervaluing the role accountants play in an organization. I am however suggesting that this is the bare minimum we should be expecting of the budgeting effort every year. We MUST be looking at our budget with a lens of VALUE. To do so, we MUST include an effort to find out what it is our citizens VALUE from the programs we provide. And we MUST make an effort to share what it is we do in a language well understood by our public. I am sorry but the typical citizen does not know what Public Works is. They do know what urban road maintenance is. The budget needs to be one the main tools in telling our story as to what we do for our customers and how we feel it reflects their desires. And, in times of constraint, like now, it is necessary to illustrate where decisions have been made to re-purpose and/or reallocate funds from an area of lower VALUE to an area of greater VALUE. This avoids either across the board cuts to areas that are deemed of great VALUE (which is just not logical) or a tax increase to support more dollars going into an area of lower VALUE. This brief story is intended mainly for potential clients who need help mining for this VALUE. However, it is also a story I hope resonates with friends who read this and maybe wear their citizen hat. Instead of challenging your municipality and your Council with an argument of we pay too many taxes or cut your spending - suggest to them that the time is now to roll up our sleeves and really support those things of greatest VALUE and challenge our assumed status quo. Stay well. As always, please reach out if you have any thoughts or questions. And share broadly, this is really important right now. Namaste (This blog was originally posted on Aug 18, 2020 by Kelly Rudyk)

Working with Resource X - officially

Bringing together opposites - creative tensions

"Without data you're just another person with an opinion."

Please enjoy the following article with my thoughts on how Great Governance can be achieved. As always I strongly encourage any and all to share their thoughts with me. I feel strongly that the strength of any idea is enhanced by the input of many.

I am currently working on a white paper about how I feel we can improve our sector. That being government, and in particular, local government. I encourage you to watch for it soon but in the meantime I felt compelled to share one of the pieces that is standing out for me at the moment. I think there are some disconnects between the public and public service that are seriously hampering any improvement efforts. A huge one is trust. The white paper will expand on this but in general the public does not trust government and many studies and polls will back this up. However, the studies and polls I have seen ask the questions mostly about the elected officials and rarely about the public servants. So, I am going to throw out an assumption here to further this blog. I believe that the public trust of public servants would be higher than that of elected officials. But, I also feel that elected officials that see and feel that distrust of the public do a couple of things that hamper improvements in public service. They attach these trust numbers to the entirety of government (themselves and public servants) and then try and improve this trust by demonstrating they are "holding public servants feet to the fire" or "squeezing them for efficiencies".