Council establishes budget priorities

Superior's City Council laid the groundwork for setting its 2018 budget.
The Council established priorities for funding as the council weighs how to tackle a projected $400,000 shortfall next year.
Mayor Jim Paine lead the Council in establishing its biggest priorities among seven areas of government services before honing-in on particulars of how to meet those goals.
"We're going to play a game involving millions of dollars," said Paine, who was involved in a similar process when Douglas County moved to priorities-based budgeting in 2014.
First, the Council focused on seven priority areas - community safety, transportation, environment, economic opportunity, community development, quality neighborhoods and efficient government.
"This is not the budget," Paine said. "This is a tool to help us craft the budget, for you to say what was important. That's not to say all of it isn't important. We recognize all of this is important ... this is in the context of cuts that have to be made."
After establishing priorities, the council honed-in on specific areas of each priority that were important to them.
For example, efficient, effective and transparent government garnered the greatest level of support from council members, and maintaining, and improving city assets and using the city workforce first garnered the most votes. Community safety ranked second with decreasing the negative effects of drug abuse, and adequate staffing of the police and fire departments garnering the most support from councilors.
Paine said each priority and item will be tabulated to determine councilors priorities and guide how the city's budget is established, which is due at the beginning of September.