Status of the City's Finances - Digital Publication

About the Program

Category: Civic Education and Public Information (Best in Category)

Year: 2016

With over 80% of its 930,000 residents using the internet, the City and County of Honolulu has a large “digital constituency”. Productive online civic engagement is quickly becoming the local norm. To meet this new standard, the Office of Council Services redesigned, revamped and digitized its annual budget report titled the Status of the City’s Finances (“SCF”). The end result of this effort, was the City’s first interactive e-publication and increased timely access to vital fiscal data by both the public and decision-makers. The compatibility of the e-publication with mobile computing devices and the availability of digital tools such as bookmarks, note taking, quick share and printing, SCF use and interest expanded citywide. During the review of the City’s annual budget, the e-publication aided lawmakers by providing essential fiscal data quickly and easily - via a single “click”. The e-publication format has since been used for other City public documents. The Status of the City’s Finances is the only City fiscal document that consolidates complex financial information into a digital user friendly format. The report is used by both decision-makers and the public at-large to understand and analyze the City’s two billion dollar annual budget.