City Projects: Gopherland Game

MN Academic Standard Addressed:  Civics & Economics

Civics:

9.1.1.1.1  Skills that enable people to monitor & influence local government affairs

9.1.4.6.8  Explain the powers and operations of local government in MN

9.1.4.6.9  Compare & contrast the budget of US & MN governments, describing major               areas of revenue and categories of spending for each.

Economics:

9.2.3.3.1   Because of scarcity, individuals, organizations and governments must evaluate trade-offs, make choices and incur costs.

Welcome to a meeting of the Gopherland City Council. The main item on the agenda for this meeting is adopting the city’s budget for the coming year.  A budget is a statement of how you set the priorities among the many demands for the use of your available resources.  Like any city council, you are divided into factions based on the areas of the city from which you have been elected and whose point of view you represent in the council. In addition, there are others who are attending this meeting—the City Administrator and some of the department heads, some concerned residents and business owners, and representatives of the media.

Gopherland is divided into six wards, each represented by one council person.  In addition, there is a mayor who is elected at-large (by the entire city).   Each ward has unique socio-economic and physical characteristics which can be described as follows:

Ward I: The old deteriorated downtown and residential slum. The downtown, or “Central Business District” (CBD for short) is in bad shape needing new investment in the form of loans for new businesses and improvements of infrastructure. The people who live around the CBD occupy old apartments and single family homes converted into rooming houses. The residents are primarily elderly and low-income families. The majority of the public housing units in the city are in Ward I. The people in Ward I have also been seeing an increase in crimes like vandalism and burglary.  Obviously, there is a need for housing rehabilitation, better schools and services, and playgrounds.

Ward II: “Blue Collar” (working class) neighborhood that includes the major factory in the city. The factory is a real stinker that pollutes the air in Ward II and causes constant noise. The housing in the ward is single family detached but is old and deteriorated. Ward II has a large number of public housing units, second only to Ward I. The streets in Ward II are falling apart from all the truck traffic that rumbles over them.  There are inadequate schools, parks, and the streets need repair. The councilperson from this ward is considering a run for State Senate in the coming years, but needs to score big for the Ward this year to gain the necessary votes down the road.

Ward III: Incumbent Upgrader neighborhood with a mixture of middle class and working people.  “Incumbent upgraders” are people who have always lived in the neighborhood and are trying to keep it up.  They are very proud of their housing and have spent large amounts to fix them up. Most of the housing is single family and was built after World War II. Their main concern is "keeping the neighborhood" nice and improving a neighborhood commercial district.

Ward IV: Gentrification Neighborhood. These are young professionals (upper-middle class, or “gentry”) who have moved back to the city and are fixing up old historic homes. They have put a lot of time and energy (not to mention dollars) in preserving the city's only historic district and they want to protect their investment.  They are clamoring for the city to upgrade the outdated “infrastructure”—the streets, as well as the water, sewer and utility lines that are buried under them

Ward V: Upper Middle Class Neighborhood consisting of businessmen. This ward has new homes (built in 1980's and 1990's) with large, well maintained yards. The schools are very good and most of the city parks are in this area.

Ward VI: Upper Class Neighborhood. Inhabitants are doctors, lawyers and bankers with big bucks! The homes are all over one acre and are very luxurious. There is a neighborhood group in Ward VI which plans on running a challenger to their city councilperson if taxes are not lowered in this budget.  At the same time, they are very interested in a major park improvement, to construct and staff a public year-round ice rink.

Mayor:  The mayor is elected by the entire city (“at-large”), and is “first among equals” on the Council.  The mayor has no special powers, other than to set the agenda and chair the meetings of the council.  The mayor is also the “official face” of the city and represents the city at public functions.  The mayor’s primary interest is to help the Council work together, and to minimize conflict as much as possible. 

Other Interested Parties

City Administrator:  The Administrator is the chief executive officer of the city.  The Administrator is appointed by the Council, and is responsible for all of the operations of the city.  The Council sets the policies, and it is the Administrator’s job to figure out how to accomplish them.  While the Council appoints all the city employees, all the employees report to and are managed by the Administrator.  The Administrator has three key department heads:

·         Public Works Director:  The Public Works Director is in charge of the streets department (construction, maintenance & snowplowing), water & sewer department, and any major construction projects built by the city government.

·         Parks Director:  The Parks Director is responsible for the construction and maintenance of all city parks and the shelters and community centers in the parks, for programming activities (including rental of sports fields) and programs in the parks, and for planting and maintaining public landscaping (street trees, flower planters downtown, etc.)

·         Public Safety Director:  The Public Safety Director is responsible for managing the police and the fire department, both the staff and the physical equipment (squad cars, fire trucks, police and fire stations, etc.)

The City Administrator has instructed each of the department heads to develop several scenarios for their department budgets:

·         3 ways to cut their budget (and how many $ would be saved)

·         2 ways to expand service (and how many $ it would cost)

·         2 ways to increase revenue from department activity

Interested Resident:  The residents who are attending this meeting are concerned that their services need to be increased, or at least not cut.  They are particularly concerned about the condition of street maintenance, the need to expand summer programs in the parks, and the protection of the streets and their homes from criminal activity.

Interested Business Owner:  The business owners who are attending this meeting are concerned that their taxes (especially property taxes and business fees) are already too high.  They argue that they need lower taxes if their business is to stay competitive—and stay in the community to supply jobs for the people who live here.

Media:  Media reporters have two key concerns:  to accurately and fairly present the news, and to present it in a way that is interesting and entertaining.  This means that, all things being equal, they look for stories that have some element of dramatic conflict (everyone sitting around holding hands and singing camp songs does not lead on the nightly news).

 

Physical Characteristics of Gopherland

Gopherland is a river town. The eastern side of the river (Wards I, II, & III) are in the flood plain while the western side (Wards IV, V & VI) are either on the bluffs or on top of the bluffs above the flood plain. The original settlement of the city was in Ward I and IV. Ward VI has the best views of river valley while Wards I & II have the most problems with flooding.

Issue before the Council

Today, you are attending a special meeting of the Council to consider the budget as prepared by the City Administrator and to decide whether to accept the plan as proposed or to modify it.

The proposed budget is in Attachment 1.

Tasks

The Mayor will convene the Council meeting, and the City Administrator will be invited to present the proposed budget.

The council will then recess to meet with their various constituents (residents and business owners, city staff, media reporters). At the same time, the Administrator and Department Heads will meet to consider their options, for cutting and for increasing the budget, and possibilities for increasing or decreasing funding. 

Although normally council members may not meet together to discuss policy except in a public meeting (“open meeting laws”), in this game the people who are playing council members are also representing the people who live and work in their ward.  So, for purposes of this game, council members may caucus together as they search for workable solutions.

 

Each council person must consider the information it has heard and decide on three things:

  1. Is your position in favor or in opposition to the budget,
  2. If you oppose, what is your alternative allocation plan? What are you willing to "give" to the other wards to get them to accept your plan?
  3. If you favor the budget plan, what will you do to convince others to accept it or what would you expect in return for accepting a different allocation?

CONSIDER STRATEGIES AND TRADEOFFS.

After a 20 minute recess, the council will reconvene to take a vote on the budget or a modification of the plan. 

At the end of the Council meeting, the media will publish their story(ies) about the Council meeting.

 

Notes to the Teacher: 

This game is likely to take two days—on the first day, introduce the framework, assign students to roles (ideally, 2 to each role so they can discuss their strategies), and give them some time to begin to strategize.  The second day would be the formal council meeting (rules for a council meeting, from the City of Hugo, are available at http://krypton.mnsu.edu/~tony/courses/200S/Hugo%20meeting%20guidelines.htm ), the negotiations, and the wrap up.

You can easily adjust this game to fit the circumstances in your own community—you can even use the budget from your own city. 

You can also invite the city administrator/city manager from your community to help you adjust the game.  You might also invite the manager to come to the second day of the exercise, to serve as an “expert adviser” to the class as they have questions about the budget or the feasibility/cost of their strategies.

Assessment of the Game: As you began the game, you brought certain assumptions about the best solution and the most likely way the game would proceed.

Analysis of the Game:

 

Sources:  http://krypton.mnsu.edu/~tony/courses/100/Gopherland%20Game.htm

                http://www.mncma.org/ei_home.cfm

                http://www.cityofalbertlea.org/pdfs/2012_Budget.pdf (for an example of a complete city budget proposal)

 

 

Attachment 1:  Proposed Budget

Gopherland Budget

General Fund

Budget 2013

Percent of Total

Budget 2012

Percent of Total

Percentage Change

Revenues

Property Taxes

$4,781,453

33.42%

$4,619,857

33.56%

3.50%

Other Taxes

1,668,000

11.66

1,560,000

11.33

6.92

Licenses & Permits

264,100

1.85

270,600

1.97

-2.40

Intergovernmental Revenue

5,784,383

40.43

5,740,983

41.70

0.76

Charge for Service

481,050

3.36

491,500

3.57

-2.13

Fines and Forfeits

110,000

0.77

110,000

0.80

0.00

Miscellaneous

1,218,829

8.52

971,000

7.05

25.52

Total Revenues

$14,307,815

100.00%

$13,763,940

100.00%

Expenditures

General Government

$1,678,277

11.58%

$1,589,045

11.54%

5.62%

Police

3,894,945

26.87

3,907,356

28.39

-0.32

Fire & Inspection

2,114,971

14.59

1,818,702

13.21

16.29

Public Works

2,693,881

18.58

2,573,372

18.70

4.68

Parks & Recreation

2,349,203

16.20

2,398,805

17.43

-2.07

Library

881,492

6.08

851,497

6.19

3.52

Community Development

87,120

0.60

150,260

1.09

-42.02

Debt Service

8,500

0.06

8,500

0.06

0.00

Transfer Out

538,050

3.71

200,000

1.45

169.03

Miscellaneous

251,000

1.73

266,403

1.94

-5.78

Total Expenditure

$14,497,439

100.00%

13763940

100.00%

The cash balances on 12/31/12 and 12/31/11 are listed below:

12/31/2012

12/31/2011

General Fund

$8,137,509

$6,866,137

Debt Service Fund

2,006,192

1,427,054

Water Fund

922,051

719,460

Sewer Fund

4,022,130

1,764,843

Solid Waste Mgmt. Fund

10,049

126,507

Parking Fund

94,437

62,038

Total

$15,192,368

$10,966,039