Background
The City's charter requires the City Manager to prepare an annual budget on the basis of estimates submitted by the directors of departments and approved by the City Commission. The budget document is the result of months of planning. The budget allocates the City's limited financial resources to provide services based on organizational and community priorities. The resulting document becomes the plan that guides departments' operations throughout the fiscal year.
The budget period is the City's fiscal year, which begins on July 1 and ends on June 30. While budgeting is an ongoing process, departments officially submit budget requests to the City Manager, or her designee, the Administrative Services Director, in March. The budget is adopted by the City Commission on the third Monday in June.
Budget Focus Groups 
Each year the City invites residents to participate in the budget process through a budget focus group. The goal of the focus group meetings is to provide relevant budget and financial information in an informal environment so that participants can better understand the City's budget process, including how revenue and expenditure recommendations are made. The group meets once a month for three months beginning in March. The budget focus group's concerns and priorities have helped guide budget decision-making and prompted thoughtful budget discussions among City departments. If you would like more information on the upcoming budget focus group, please contact Andrea Arnold, Assistant City Manager, at 404-370-4102 or send an email.
Budget Schedule
February
- Budget memo and schedule to departments
- Department budget planning and preparation
March
- First meeting with budget focus group
- All department budget requests due
- Performance measures, CIP requests and strategic linkages due
- City Commission adopts billing ordinance
- Budget review with all departments
April
- Second meeting with budget focus group
- Personnel estimates and revenue projections due
- Revised budget changes due
May
- Preliminary budget complete
- Third meeting with budget focus group
- Presentation of budget to commission and adoption of tentative millage rate
- Public hearing ads published in legal organ
June
- Public hearings on budget and millage rate
- Adoption of budget and adoption of final millage rate
Strategic Planning and the Budget
In the fall of 1998 the City sponsored the Decatur Roundtables, a community forum that involved 500 community members. A report of key concerns and action teams developed from this process. This report and recommendations from the action teams guide many of the City's activities. Over 200 stakeholders helped develop a ten-year strategic plan based on the work of the Roundtables project. The strategic plan was completed in the summer of 2000. Three core principles emerged from the plan:
A. Manage Growth While Retaining Character
B. Encourage Community Interaction
C. Provide Quality Services Within Fiscal Limits
The plan identifies goals and specific tasks for each principle. The plan is reviewed annually in conjunction with the budget to ensure the budget supports the plan's principles and tasks and incorporates community input into the budget process. Within the budget process, each department submits examples of how department activities are linked to the strategic plan. A report listing departmental strategic linkages is included in an appendix to the budget.