Contra Costa County Grand Jury
• 2010-2011
Brentwood—a City Addressing Reality To: City Councils in Contra Costa County
⚠️ Translation Notice: This content has been automatically translated. The original English text is the official version. Translation may contain errors.
⚠️ Este contenido ha sido traducido automáticamente. El texto original en inglés es la versión oficial. La traducción puede contener errores.
Findings and Recommendations 6 findings
F1
Brentwood developed an interactive fiscal model to forecast 10 years into the future in order to reveal potential problems and allow time to address them.
Related Recommendations (1)
R1
Brentwood should continue to use its interactive fiscal model and make it available to other cities.
F2
Establishing sufficient General Fund reserves and specific fund reserves gives Brentwood greater flexibility in fiscal management and the ability to react to changing circumstances.
No recommendations for this finding
F3
Before reducing staff and expenses, Brentwood measured the impact of each reduction on public service delivery.
No recommendations for this finding
F4
Outcome-based contracts allow for cost savings and greater control of results.
No recommendations for this finding
F5
Benchmarking has been a useful tool for Brentwood, but could be more useful if it included other City activities to measure performance and solicited comparison data from peer agencies.
Related Recommendations (1)
R2
To more effectively measure performance, Brentwood should expand benchmarking to other city services and collaborate with other peer agencies to establish similar benchmarking standards.
F6
Because employee benefits given in good times may not be sustainable, a new tier for new non-safety hires was implemented, but not for public safety employees.
Related Recommendations (1)
R3
Brentwood should reduce the financial impact of public safety employee pension and other benefit costs for the City’s future financial stability. CONCLUSION While there are no required recommendations for other cities, the Grand Jury suggests that cities consider implementing a ten-year interactive fiscal model if they do not currently have one. Brentwood has indicated a willingness to share its model. An interactive fiscal model serves as a dynamic financial tool to help guide city council decisions during the budget process or when considering costly projects. In addition, other cities should consider undertaking a benchmarking project of measurable key activities. This would help ensure that local governments are providing services as cost- effectively and efficiently as possible.
Conclusions 1
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CL1 Page 4While there are no required recommendations for other cities, the Grand Jury suggests that cities consider implementing a ten-year interactive fiscal model if they do not currently have one. Brentwood has indicated a willingness to share its model. An interactive fiscal model serves as a dynamic financial tool to help guide city council decisions during the budget process or when considering costly projects. In addition, other cities should consider undertaking a benchmarking project of measurable key activities. This would help ensure that local governments are providing services as cost- effectively and efficiently as possible.
No Responses Found 1
Government entities assigned to respond to this report. No response documents have been linked in our database.
Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors
Elected County Office