Lawrence’s city budget document is good and getting better, but it’s not at the award-winning level yet.

That’s the assessment of the Government Finance Officers Assn., which reviewed the 2002 city budget for its “Distinguished Budget Presentation Awards” program. It was the first time Lawrence had submitted its budget for review.

“You have a very good start at what could be a very good budget document,” said one anonymous judge for the association. “With a few changes, the document could improve significantly.”

The association program reviews municipal budget documents with 26 separate criteria to determine how easily the budgets can be read and used by decision-makers and regular people.

City Manager Mike Wildgen’s office submitted the 2002 budget to the association as part of the city commission’s mandate to make city government more user-friendly and will continue to do so in future years. Officials expanded written sections in the budget describing why and how each department received its money.

All three anonymous judges said the city needed to do a better job of describing its major revenue sources specifically, why the city believes those sources will be available.

“There is little or no information as to how the revenues were projected for the budget year,” one judge wrote.

City officials were generally pleased with the association’s review and said it would help the city improve.

“The information we now have from the panelists’ rating form … will be very helpful as we continue to develop a budget document that assists the city commission and public in understanding the city’s financial plan,” Assistant City Manager Debbie Van Saun said in a memorandum.

Commissioner David Dunfield credited his colleague Mike Rundle with spurring changes to make the budget easier to understand. That process helped commissioners as they planned the 2003 budget, he said.

“I think the process as we’ve seen it evolve over the last year has been beneficial,” Dunfield said. “My understanding has certainly increased.”

Rundle said he wasn’t satisfied, however, saying written descriptions had largely been missing from the proposed $107 million budget for 2003. Officials shouldn’t wait until after the budget is approved to put that information into the document, he said.

“The cup’s still half-empty. I still see room for improvement,” Rundle said.

“I’m not sure there’s enough information here for me to commit the taxpayers to this budget.”