Washougal Delivers on Strategic Goals by Enhancing Financial Transparency

Utility Rate Increase Drove Need for Financial Transparency

The city also needed to address growing resistance to a planned utility rate increase. A few years prior, the phased in increase was approved to cover expenses associated with state-mandated improvements to the city’s water and sewer systems. “We wanted to be very transparent about how these funds were used,” Morris explained. “We’re not a for-profit, and we need to demonstrate to citizens that this isn’t about generating a surplus. We needed to show that the rate increases were used only to cover the cost of infrastructure improvements.”

The city received public complaints that the city was using the rate increases to fund other, unrelated capital projects. In response, Morris and her boss, Finance Director Jennifer Forsberg, set out to demonstrate how utility revenue was being collected and spent, and to clear up misconceptions.

OpenGov visualizes half a decade of Washougal’s revenues and expenditures for half a decade, including proposed budget figures.

Finance Team Adopted OpenGov to Increase Financial Transparency

Morris and Forsberg, along with other directors in the city, researched transparency best practices and identified a suite of tools that together would allow residents to access their utility accounts online, submit anonymous requests for repairs throughout the city, and bring the city’s finances online for all to see in an easy-to-understand format.

Morris learned about the OpenGov Smart Government Cloud through a recommendation from nearby Othello, Washington’s finance director. “I watched the OpenGov tutorial, stopped halfway through, and went into my boss’s office to show it to her. When she saw it, she was immediately on board,” Morris explained.

After getting the city administrator’s sign-off, Morris brought Washougal’s finances online in a user-friendly format, powered by OpenGov. “It was such an easy implementation to do,” Morris said. “I didn’t need IT’s help to build the site,” Morris added. She estimated it took just six hours, start to finish, for her to complete the initial data uploads to the OpenGov platform.

Inspect and analyze spending by department, then drill down or compare past years with one click.

Communication Efforts Began to Pay Off

Using the OpenGov platform’s features started improving the community’s understanding of how the city was using the revenue from the utility rate increase. “The filter has been a fabulous tool. It puts our financial data into a format that people can see and interact with,” Morris explained. “Having the pie charts and stackable graphs has been so helpful in communicating how money in each fund can or can’t be used,” she added. “Citizens can now explore the budget as much as they want, and they can really dig into very specific revenues and expenses.”

Unlike high-level summary reports, which are usually intended for financial analysts or bond raters who don’t need a lot of detail, the new financial platform also presents transaction-level data in an accessible, well-organized format. “It’s so helpful to be able to show the specifics, such as how much a particular project costs, or where a particular revenue stream comes from, or how much a specific item costs,” added Morris.

Finance Team Saved Time Preparing Reports

The OpenGov platform has also proved to be a useful tool for presenting and reporting the budget. “I just finished our budget submittal and used the graphics tool quite a bit, which saved me a lot of time making charts and graphs for the report,” Morris added.

“It’s so helpful to be able to show the specifics, such as how much a particular project costs.”
Meagan Morris, Lead Accountant, Washougal, WA

Washougal’s finance team has also used the portal to inform key management decisions and show other department heads how their budgets have changed year to year. “I’ve used it to show managers, for example, how their spending on professional services compares to salaries,” Morris explained.

Morris and Forsberg further envisioned using the OpenGov to use it to present quarterly financial reports to the council. “I think this will really enhance our reports to council and will save us time preparing for them,” said Morris, who also trained the city staff on how to use the platform. “The feedback was excellent,” she noted.

“Citizens can now explore our budget as much as they want.”
Meagan Morris, Lead Accountant, Washougal, WA

View expense breakdowns as they change over time and as a proportion of total expenditures.

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Summary

• Washougal, Washington’s leaders adopted a strategic plan to expand civic communication and participation.
• Utility rate increases drove the need for greater financial transparency into the city’s finances.
• City leaders embraced cloud-based solutions to make financial information readily accessible to citizens, and successfully adopted OpenGov’s Smart Government Platform.
• Residents benefited from the ability to explore detailed budget data in OpenGov, including how revenues are collected and spent.

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