CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING AGENDA PACKET

Page 3 of 5 Public Engagement Plan The City has planned various tools for public engagement during the upcoming budget cycle. These tools are designed to complement scheduled City Council meetings and budget workshops, ensuring the public gains a clearer understanding of the budget development process and has multiple opportunities to provide input. To achieve these goals, staff has prepared a comprehensive engagement strategy, consisting of one town hall, two pop-up events, and an online engagement tool, with support from Civic Makers, at a total not to exceed amount of $50,000. This approach is projected to reach the largest audience, estimated to be between 2,000-3,000 participants, and ensure a diverse sample of community input. By engaging Civic Makers, the City secures access to consultant hours, which complements staff involvement, striking a balance between external expertise and internal capacity. Civic Makers specialize in community engagement and can leverage their proven methodologies to get maximum participation in Pleasanton as it has demonstrated with its prior work in the city and in surrounding communities, such as Hayward, Alameda, Berkeley, San Jose, and San Francisco. Investment in broader outreach may foster trust and increased transparency in the budgeting process, while ensuring that all voices are represented, including communities most impacted by potential service reductions. Staff is also exploring the use of a statistically valid survey tool to complement the qualitative engagement data.The tool will measure public opinion and satisfaction on topics such as community priorities, programming preferences, and infrastructure needs. By collecting statistically valid data, the City can ensure its decisions reflect community interests. Staff has developed an extensive communications plan that will leverage social media platforms, newsletters, a dedicated website landing page, and other collateral to disseminate information broadly to residents and businesses. Staff is also proposing formation of a Budget Advisory Committee (BAC) to provide insights and recommendations on community priorities and strategies for achieving a balanced budget. The BAC will complement the traditional budget approach and provide critical insights to help the City Manager address constraints on City finances, while also increasing transparency and providing additional opportunity for engagement with key community stakeholders. A separate agenda report regarding the formation of the BAC will be on the December 17, 2024, City Council agenda. Together, these efforts are geared toward gathering timely and comprehensive community feedback, which will be incorporated into the budget process to reflect the priorities and needs of the community. ALTERNATIVES Alternatives to the recommended action include: Alternative A: Traditional Budget Process As an alternative, staff could simply follow the prior budget development process, with several council meetings and workshops and no additional community engagement or BAC. A traditional approach to the budget process consists of a series of City Council meetings and one to two budget workshops. These traditional budget process milestones are captured in the budget calendar, and include: • February 18, 2025 City Council Meeting: FY 2024/25 mid-year budget and FY 2025/26 and FY 2026/27 baseline budget and long-range financial forecast presentations Page 283 of 893