Reston Association to Consider Changing Budget Process

The Reston Association’s Board of Directors are set to discuss truncating its biennial budget processes at its meeting tonight (March 21).

Treasurer Eric Carr and Chief Executive Officer Hank Lynch are scheduled to present a proposal that would shift the Reston Association to an annual budget cycle.

Currently, RA’s budget process has an intense first year that calls for community projects, benchmarking programs and more the budget gets developed in the second year.

Carr and Lynch will tell the board that the current process does not provide RA the flexibility to make changes to the budget on an annual basis, according to their presentation.

A new timeline would propose the following:

• June: RA Board has budget conversations for next year’s priorities
• July: Staff presents the first draft of the budget, and RA sends the accepted draft to the Fiscal Committee
• November: Staff presents the final draft of the budget

Ultimately, the proposed change aims to free up more time for other issues by tightening the budget process. The presentation notes, however, that the board will have to be disciplined and fully engaged in order to succeed.

The meeting is set to start at 6:30 p.m. at RA’s headquarters (12001 Sunrise Valley Drive).

The draft agenda for the meeting is available online.