Rosemount offers citizens a closer look at its books through budget transparency tool

Published October 2, 2016 at 10:06 pm

The city of Rosemount has launched a new online tool available to the public as part of its transparency efforts.

Visitors to the city’s website at www.ci.rosemount.mn.us/transparency can call up detailed graphs and tables on city’s spending and collection of revenues over the past five years. Users can dig into areas of special interest and track changes over time.

Rosemount is utilizing a new digital platform powered by OpenGov that provides residents, elected officials and staff unprecedented access to city finances and performance information. The OpenGov platform transforms complex financial data into an interactive, digital format that enables better analysis and understanding of public finances. OpenGov’s intuitive design makes it easier to explore how taxpayer money is collected and spent.

The new feature was described Sept. 20 by Rosemount Finance Director Jeff May after his presentation to the City Council on the proposed budgets for 2017.

Users can view historical revenue and expenditure trends over time and explore multiple views of financial data, including by fund, department, expense or revenue type. Thanks to monthly updates, the current year report provides insight into spending and revenues year-to-date. Visitors can share what they find directly from the platform via email or on social media.

“This is a tremendous opportunity for our residents and staff” to access budget data visually, said Council member Jeff Weisensel.

“Anytime we can provide that transparency to the public, that’s important,” said Mayor Bill Droste.

“By making its financial data easily accessible in an intuitive, digital format, the city is demonstrating its commitment to efficient, data-driven and open government,” commented Zac Bookman, CEO and co-founder of OpenGov.

Rosemount City Council members can also use OpenGov internally to create custom reports, manage operations to budget and keep administrators informed.

Rosemount joins a list of more than 1,000 cities, counties, state agencies, school systems, and special districts across the country that employ OpenGov technology.

By: OpenGov
Published: October 2, 2016
Source: Rosemount offers citizens a closer look at its books through budget transparency tool