City: Boulder, Colorado

Reporting to: Assistant City Manager

The Challenge

The city of Boulder has a long history of providing high-quality municipal services. However, it is now grappling with a growing demand for local government services without increased revenues to pay for them. Additionally, Boulder’s financial resilience is compromised by its over-reliance on sales tax revenues, and the designation of over 65% of city revenues for specific uses, limiting the city’s flexibility to address emerging community challenges. Protecting underfunded core city services like parks, transportation, and public safety will require long-term, sustainable revenue streams and funding strategies. To navigate these issues, government entities and the community will need to engage in difficult conversations around strategic priorities and the roles and responsibilities of key stakeholders.

To initiate these discussions, the mayor and city council prioritized the creation of a strategic planning document and financial plan in April 2024: the Long-Term Financial Strategy (LTFS). The LTFS aims to establish and articulate the city of Boulder’s guiding principles of fiscal philosophy and financial strategy. To guide the LTFS implementation, several teams have been created to manage the project and execute research, analysis, and decision-making, including the LTFS Executive Steering Committee, LTFS Workstream Core Teams, and subject matter experts.

The LTFS consists of four Future Action Steps, or workstreams, and corresponding priorities with different timelines and key deliverables: 1) The Long-Term Financial Plan will prioritize establishing financial principles, performing a current state assessment, and revising and updating financial policies. City leadership plans to complete the plan by March, and city council will review it in May 2025. 2) The city of Boulder will also address a comprehensive fee inventory, study, and alternative funding mechanisms to be completed in January 2025. City staff anticipates a new fee policy to be developed in Spring 2025 before the 2026 budget deadlines in mid-June. Simultaneously, staff have adopted an initial framework to inventory and define core service levels. 3) Significant work will be required to define core service levels for the city and determine appropriate funding levels and a process to prioritize underfunded services. 4) Finally, staff have worked with City Council’s Financial Strategy Committee (FSC) to define the goals for a 2025 and 2026 ballot measure. There is alignment with the FSC to focus on a more limited ballot item for 2025 that prioritizes maintenance and operations related to existing assets. A more comprehensive approach to 2026 is recommended and the work ahead includes establishing a model for prioritization, engagement, and communications.

The fellow will assist in the third and fourth workstreams: defining core services and management levels and building a ballot strategy for 2026. The fellow will also help communicate findings across stakeholders and communities. This project will also utilize the city’s Racial Equity Instrument, a specific method designed to determine the benefits and drawbacks of any policy changes on all community members. This will ensure greater collaboration across stakeholders, communities, and departments.

Key questions include:

• What is a “core service” for the city of Boulder?
• What funding levels are adequate based on community needs?
• How can existing resources be used to better address community needs?
• What additional resources would be necessary to sustain or enhance service levels?
• What are comparable cities doing, and what can we learn from their efforts?

What You’ll Do

While the work on our LTFS will evolve over the next several months based on city council input, a fellow joining us in the summer will focus on research, data analysis, and policy development that supports investment strategies in current city services and infrastructure for the 2026 budget and ballot strategy. To advance our work on priorities three and four above, the fellow will engage the following key stakeholders:

• LTFS Executive Steering Committee:
  • City Manager Executive Team (City Manager, Deputy City Manager, two Assistant City Managers), Chief Financial Officer, Budget Officer, Utilities Director, Parks & Recreation Director, Facilities and Fleet Director, and Communications & Engagement Director
• Executive Budget Team:
  • City Manager Executive Team, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Human Resources Officer, Communication & Engagement Director, Budget Officer, Equity Officer, and two rotating department directors
• Financial Strategy Committee:
  • Three City Council Members
  • Staffed by the City Manager’s Office and Finance Department staff
• City Council
  • City Council will review the progress related to the LTFS including a recommendation approach to 2025 ballot measures at its May 8 meeting. The Council will have several touchpoints on the LTFS related to the 2026 budget review, most likely in September and October 2025.
• Department Directors
• Capital Review Team

The fellow is expected to:

1. Conduct desk research of all existing data and materials, and research and analyze existing data in comparison to peer cities.
2. Provide research, data analysis, and policy support in the definition of core service levels across the organization based on city goals and priorities.
3. Provide technical assistance in the development of a prioritization framework to assist city staff in developing a ballot strategy
4. Assist in developing a marketing and communications strategy to draw interest and clarity in the funding choices and trade-offs associated with the LTFS.

What You’ll Bring

• Data analysis
• Financial modeling
• Marketing
• Policy analysis