This is going to be a geeky engineer answer, but I suggest the city consider switching our budget process to a biennial review—rather than annual. This will allow us to better follow our overarching goals, identified with heavy community input, and minimize politically-driven touch-points. I believe this will reduce the focus on “pet projects” by Council Members, and allow us to spend the budget more efficiently—meaning more funds to allocate overall. We should also ensure that we encourage policies that are consistent with Imagine Austin and the city’s six Strategic Outcomes.