available for viewing in every branch of the Windsor Public Library and at City Hall (Office of the City Clerk & Office of the Chief Financial Officer). The documents will also be available on the City's web site.

The process will also allow the public to provide input to their councillors and administration for a 5-week period after the recommended budget is released publicly, and also during Council's 2020 budget deliberations the week of January 27th.

Administrative Review Process

Following the direction of the CFO, and in conjunction with their Corporate Leader, each city department prepared preliminary budget options based on Council's direction to maintain a status quo tax levy. In late September of 2019, the Executive Directors & Senior Managers then met with the members of the Corporate Leadership Team and the Financial Planning team, in what is now an annual week-long meeting chaired by the CAO, to fully discuss the impacts of the various budget options put forth with a focus on providing a draft recommended budget to Council.

Consistent with Council's direction to present options to hold the line on taxes, Administration has prepared and provides a 2020 Operating Budget, which is consistent with the 2019 Property Tax Levy for those City Departments, which fall under the direction and control of the CAO. While Administration recommends a 1.2% increase relative to those City Departments, options are also put forth to allow Council to reduce the increase to zero. It is noted, however, that after many years of fiscal constraint, the reductions that would be required to avoid a property tax increase would, in administration's opinion, negatively impact the quality and level of services.

Appendix A – Executive Summary Overview

The budget increases and reductions have been summarized, categorized and presented in a priority order format, for Council's consideration. Referencing the chart above, the categories are as follows:

 Section A – Recommended Preapprovals & Pressures With Little or No Council Discretion

This section outlines increases that are either Council pre-approvals or pressures where there exists little to no Council discretion. These increases include items that were previously approved by Council as corporate priorities, or represent increases that must be funded in order to continue municipal operations at existing service levels. In many cases, these increases are contractual or legislative in nature.

 Section B – Highest Priority Budget Increases Recommended by Administration

Administration These increases are considered by Administration to be the highest priority budget items. They are recommended and strongly supported by Administration in order to achieve efficiencies identified by the Departments as part of their annual budget review and/or to avoid significant deterioration to services. In the majority of cases the increases have been identified as priorities that are required to maintain existing services at current levels such that without these priority increases, services would be impacted. In addition, recognizing a changing and increased workload being