The City of Redmond’s results-oriented budget process is now officially underway.

Starting with community conversations during Neighborhood Network meetings during the past two weeks, city staff and citizen volunteers are now crafting guidelines for Redmond’s next biennial budget. In 2008, the City Council and Mayor John Marchione instituted a process called Budgeting by Priorities (BP) in which staff and six citizen volunteer teams play an important role in guiding city budget proposals.

Each team consists of a Redmond citizen volunteer and four city staff from various departments. The teams are integrating comments gathered at the neighborhood meetings with the city’s six budget priorities to develop budget guidelines for each assigned priority.

The priorities are: Business Vitality, Clean and Green Environment, Community Building, Infrastructure and Growth, Responsible Government and Safety.

An additional team will focus on capital improvements.

Byron Shutz, one of this year’s volunteers said, “Our city has so much more going on than many residents are often aware. The city leadership offers community members a surprising number of essential roles to actively participate in. This (budget team) contribution is one of the more visible activities influencing the future policies and lifestyle environment in which we’ll reside and work.”

The teams will report their recommendations for these budget guidelines to the mayor and the City Council later in March. Once reviewed and refined, these will be provided to city managers and supervisors to use in developing their budgets. More information about the city’s BP process can be found at www.redmond.gov/bp or by contacting Finance Director Mike Bailey at mebailey@redmond.gov or deputy Finance Director Malisa Files at mfiles@redmond.gov.