San Diego Citizens' Budget Project

Based on the 226 options unearthed by Citizens' Budget Project researchers, as well as the opinions and expertise shared at the two "town hall" dialogues hosted in March and May, The Performance Institute has compiled a set of 10 recommended reforms for the government of the City of San Diego.

“There has been a lot of talk at Council over the past few weeks about accountability, transparency and reform. Reform has to be more than rhetoric—it has to be real. The San Diego Citizens’ Budget Plan will result in real reform in the way the city budgets and accounts for taxpayer funds, as well as the way city departments are managed,” said Carl DeMaio, President of the Performance Institute.


#1	Enact a Balanced Budget Accountability Initiative
#2	Launch an Independent Audit of City Enterprise Funds
#3	Reorganize City Government to Streamline Overhead Costs
#4	Create “311” Citizen Service Center
#5	Create a Competitive Bid Process to Make Support Services Efficient
#6	Reform Employee and Optimization Incentive Funds
#7	Reduce Skyrocketing Labor Costs and the Pension Liability
#8	Establish a Reasonable Limit on City Spending Increases
#9	Reduce Corporate Welfare and Subsidies to Special Interests
#10	Reduce Mayor and Council Staff Size and Budgets

The Case for Real Accountability, Efficiency and Transparency Reforms in San Diego City Government
Before proposing a solution, it is imperative that the problem be clearly defined. As such, the San Diego Citizens' Budget Project had to begin its efforts to improve governance in our city government by reviewing the financial management of the city with an eye toward documenting any deficiencies and problems. When the Project was launched in November 2003, the City of San Diego's finances were already rocky at best. The city was in the middle of a third straight year where the budget fell apart mid-year producing a multi-million dollar operating deficit. Yet, if one were to listen to the Council and City Manager at the time, the city's budget woes were not its own doing-but resulting from state raids on local finances.

About The San Diego Citizens' Budget Project In November, 2003, the Performance Institute launched the "San Diego Citizens' Budget Project"-an initiative that would study the city's budget with the objective of identifying cost savings and performance improvement reforms during the FY 2005 budget cycle. This project builds on the highly successful "California Citizens’ Budget Project" completed by the Institute in 2003 that became the impetus behind Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's California Performance Review.	About The Performance Institute The Performance Institute is a private think tank seeking to improve government performance through the principles of accountability, performance, competition, and transparency. The Institute serves as the nation's leading authority and repository on performance-based management practices for government. Our mission is to identify, study and disseminate the leading management innovations pioneered by "best-in-class" organizations.