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By SETH HARKNESS, Staff Writer Tuesday, March 27, 2007

SACO - Last year's financial report for the city of Saco was about an inch thick and even the mayor acknowledged not many residents wanted to grapple with the dense document.

"It was a 100-page report that had realistically not been read by many people," said Mayor Mark Johnston.

Saco's latest fiscal report is four pages long. It has numerous pie charts and colorful graphics. City officials say it conveys much of the same information in a more readable format.

The format, developed with the help of the Association of Government Accountants, allows residents to quickly gauge the financial health of local government. In addition to making it easier for citizens to stay informed, the document provides a fiscal yardstick for measuring the performance of municipal government from year to year.

Saco is one of several pilot communities -- including Phoenix, Ariz., and Washington, D.C. -- that have been working with the association to condense their finances into an abbreviated, easy-to-read report. Saco became the first community to issue a document at a press conference Monday at City Hall.

Mayor Mark Johnston said the report is meant to help stimulate good government by clarifying the city's finances and showing where the money goes. "We know that governments have a reputation for being good at collecting taxes but not necessarily as good at being accountable for how those tax dollars are spent," he said.

The report, available at City Hall, compares basic financial data about the city's revenues and expenditures over the last two years. It also includes data collected during surveys of residents in 2004 and 2005.

The new reporting system requires each city department to report progress according to a set of quantifiable benchmarks.

The report provides a list of "significant accomplishments" over the past year and contains a smattering of statistics, such as the number of parking tickets issued last year by the police department and how many miles of pipe are contained in the Saco sewerage system.

Saco Finance Director Lisa Parker, who is active with the association and wrote the new report, said the short document is meant to link with more detailed information posted on the city's Web site. That information was not yet available Monday.

A sampling of business people along Main Street offered mixed reviews of how well the report accomplished its goals.

Troy Nadeau, owner of Alphie's Men and Boys Apparel in Pepperell Square, said tending to his new business leaves him little time to follow what is happening with city government. He said more accessible financial reports would help.

"I don't need to be an accountant or a lawyer to read these numbers," he said. "If they're able to put it in an easy-to-read format, I'd definitely be more likely to get involved."

The owner of Diamonds and Co. Fine Jewelry, Christian Doyon, said he thought the report provided easily understandable answers to some of the questions he had about city government. "Taxes are always going up and you always wonder what that's actually going toward," he said.

Richard Gaudreau, an investment representative with Edward Jones, leafed through the report and said it lacks substance. He said he would like to see information such as the salaries of city employees and overtime costs listed in the report, as a publicly held company would do.

"When you really look at this it doesn't offer anything," he said.

Saco intends to continue publishing the short financial report on an annual basis, according to Parker. She said city officials hope other cities will do the same so communities can begin comparing data.

"It should be a regional collaborative effort of people learning from one another," she said.