Case Study: City of Winchester achieves greater transparency and strategic budgeting with OpenGov

For Winchester, Virginia, transparency was a first step toward strategic budgeting

The City of Winchester, Virginia, led by CFO Mary Blowe, needed a better way to align spending with its strategic priorities and to make budget and performance data understandable for both internal stakeholders and the public. Static PDF budget books, manual spreadsheets, and limited reporting made it hard to track line‑item spending, measure progress on goals, or reallocate funds efficiently.

Winchester implemented the OpenGov cloud platform on AWS to publish its 2021–2026 strategic plan online and create interactive budget books, dashboards, maps, an “open checkbook,” and an electronic procurement workflow. The solution provides daily data updates, visual storytelling and narrative context for budget requests, improved internal decision‑making and procurement visibility, reduced public contention in budget meetings, and saved staff time while building greater trust and transparency.

City of Winchester

Mary Blowe

Chief Financial Officer