While the city has been offering — and will continue to offer — opportunities to give feedback, residents had a chance to attend a budget open house at the Municipal Building for the first time Tuesday evening. Department heads along with City Council members gathered on the third floor ready to answer the public’s questions during the informal event.

City Finance Director Justin Sorensen told the Standard-Examiner that, prior to Tuesday’s open house, public outreach on the budget outside of official meetings has usually been done online.

“This is the first time we’ve done this,” he said. “In years past, they’ve done social media where they’ve done a broadcast on Facebook to see if they’ll get people to be able to watch and they could submit questions through Facebook and then council members could answer them.”

He said the the open house is part of the City Council’s efforts based on feedback from the public.

“They’ve taken feedback from citizens and what they think would be helpful for them to give feedback to the budget process,” he said. “Instead of it only being in the council meeting when they go to adopt the budget, it’s a forum that allows citizens to just come in and talk face-to-face versus a podium in a meeting.”

Sorensen said there will be further opportunities for the public to give feedback on the proposed budget, which is taking its preliminary form.

“Next week, the City Council will consider adopting the tentative budget and they’ll have a public hearing with that,” he said. “Then the final budget will be considered on June 17, and again, they’ll have a public hearing that night as well. Those are two more opportunities for people to come to a council meeting.”

He said that people can also reach out to members of the Ogden City Council at any time ahead of the final adoption to give feedback or ask questions.

The budget was presented to the City Council last month and includes no rise in taxes at this time.

“This proposed budget is grounded in fiscal responsibility and bold enough to invest in what matters most — our people and their future,” Ogden Mayor Ben Nadolski said while presenting his budget proposal in May. “Through partnerships and a spirit of collaboration, we remain committed to maintaining quality and sustainable city services, all without asking more from taxpayers.”

For more information on the budget, visit https://www.ogdencity.gov/172/Budgets-Finance.