Tempe outlines Start tool and TAP acceleration to align priorities with budget

Waddell Holmes, Tempe's Strategic Management and Innovation Director, presented the Start performance-led budgeting tool and the TAP (Team Acceleration Program) model the city uses to accelerate priority performance measures. Holmes described Start as a point-distribution exercise ("not an allocation of funding") in which council members will receive a theoretical $100 to distribute across 101 performance measures, with minimum and maximum allocations intended to focus priorities.

Holmes said Start informs capital-improvement and operating-budget alignment and emphasized the tool's dashboards, training and public transparency. "This is an opportunity for you all to provide early direction to us as staff," Holmes said, noting the Start tool will be released to council Nov. 14 and results returned at the Dec. 11 work study session.

Holmes highlighted five accelerated measures for 2025'26 including ending homelessness, housing-inventory ratio integration into an economic stability index, and public-safety metrics tied to camera coverage and Operation Street Shield results. He credited cross-department collaboration and the TAP meetings (biweekly facilitated sessions) for progress and said detailed dashboards and quarterly TAP reports will track implementation.

Staff asked the council to use the Start tool to provide early strategic direction; Holmes emphasized these choices do not automatically change funding but guide strategy, capital planning and potential resource shifts during the FY2026 budget process.