Council: Open budget process

IF THE RECENTLY ENDED citizen budget workshops showed us anything, it was that ordinary city taxpayers care very much about where their money goes and will come out -by the thousands -to debate the best way to spend it.

Maybe if more than a few Council members had bothered to show up at those meetings, they'd have a better clue about how they should conduct their own budget hearings.

So far, it seems they have no clue. Last week, Council President Anna Verna barred reporters from a meeting where Council was discussing the idea of holding some budget hearings in places other than City Hall. We can't understand why these conversations were private, but the idea is only a small improvement. Council should use the fiscal crisis and the intense public interest it has generated to overhaul its budget process.

_ Let them start. Council should move public testimony from the end to the beginning. During the last round of hearings, citizens were allowed to testify only after the administration and department heads did. By the end, most everyone has tuned out. That might change because of the fiscal crisis, but putting public testimony first is a good way to make sure it gets the attention it deserves.

* Make public testimony relevant. Instead of

lumping all the public testimony into one session, Council should take public testimony throughout the budget process. It makes more sense to allow someone to testify about the Department of Licenses and Inspections at the same time as the commissioner of the department.

* Get real with the hours. Why should citizens

who have daytime jobs be cut out of the picture? The idea is to encourage participation, not limit it to business hours. Holding hearings at night will allow a broader group of people testify and watch the hearings. It will mean some late nights for Council members and their staffers, but the mayor's staffers already have sacrificed their evenings for public forums. Council should follow suit.

_ Get out of City Hall. Council should go for the

idea of holding hearings in other parts of the city. Council should also build a Web site where people can offer testimony, review the testimony that has been given and review budget progress.

In the meantime, citizens can visit "It's Our Money" at www.ourmoneyphilly.com and post their two cents on the budget. The final report on the budget workshops also has been released; find it at www.gse.upenn.edu/pdf/TTTC_Report.pdf *