Guest post by Maria LoPresto
Many of us concerned about Norfolk’s government ask for transparency, yet not all of us take the time to make our concerns known during the budget process. WHY is the budget process important to the average citizen? What is important about this process and why should be we care? The answer is simple: oftentimes we do not pay attention to the budget until the final stages of the process. Even then, we only pay attention to the “outliers”- larger than average department cuts or increases and not the everyday funding that affects our daily life.
By participating in this process, citizens have an opportunity give feedback to city officials on public services, give administrators input regarding priorities, help budget managers set performance measures based on these priorities, and lastly, understand the importance (or lack thereof) of services provided by the local municipality.
Citizens play an integral part of the budgeting process. With their input, managers are able to adjust the services and service levels according to the citizens’ concern. For instance, I am a member of the Norfolk Wellness and Fitness center. During last year’s budget discussions, the hours were slashed. As a result of citizens input, some hours were restored. This is a trivial example but with cuts being on the table to public safety, education and other essential services, this is not the time to ignore this process.
Municipal budgeting is a tense and complicated process but without citizen participation in these forums, the voice of the voter is non-existent. Whether online via comments or by attending one of these hearings, your voice as a Norfolkian is imperative to driving this city forward. Don’t wait to read about the finished budget in the paper and express outrage then.
Democracy does not end at the ballot box, make it a point to let your voice be heard.
Maria is a graduate student at ODU, where she will receive her Masters in Public Administration in May 2011.
The City of Norfolk will be hosting a series of public hearings on the budget. The first one will be held Tuesday, February 22, from 6pm – 8pm at Granby High School. The entire series, including information on how you can participate even if you cannot attend the hearings, can be found in the press release here.
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
This is a great reminder for all of us Maria! I hope to see many people turn out for the public forums. It seems from the comments posted to recent newspaper articles and the great turnout for the town hall meeting organized by Tommy Smigiel, et al., that there are a lot of Norfolkians who are taking an interest in how our City Council chooses to spend taxpayer dollars. Hope to see good turnouts for the scheduled events.