Soon after assuming office in 2008, the current board of county commissioners formed a budget advisory committee. Butler officials should be doing the same thing now, considering the dire financial circumstances facing the city.

The nine-member committee of volunteers organized by the county included a former county commissioner, two former bankers, business owners, a person with municipal experience and people from large public organizations. The city should look for people with similar backgrounds, maybe even asking a few members of the county's group to join the city-focused effort to share the benefits of their experience.

Just as county Commissioners James Kennedy, James Lokhaiser and Dale Pinkerton acknowledged, through the formation of the advisory committee, that they do not know everything about county government, city officials should demonstrate similar wisdom in seeking outside guidance.

A committee to help the city improve its financial picture and return some vitality to the county seat should certainly include people with financial and budget expertise. The group also would benefit from having someone with experience in dealing with labor unions.

Since Butler's Main Street commercial district is a critical part of the city, a retail perspective should also be included in the group.

People with other skills or perspectives could be brought in to share their ideas or make special presentations to the committee. This might include someone with commercial development experience, a person with grant-writing experience or even a presentation by the director of the city's redevelopment authority, Perry O'Malley.

Surely, there is enough expertise and experience in this city and county to help Butler avoid slipping further into fiscal and aesthetic distress — and perhaps facing the prospect of having to file for financially distressed status.

And just as the county's advisory committee did, the city's financial review group should be held to a fairly quick turnaround. The county can serve as a model, since the county's group conducted its meetings and issued a report within weeks, not months, of being formed. A member of the county's effort credited Jerry Andree, Cranberry Township manager, with keeping things moving. For that reason, and his experience in municipal management, Andree should be part of the city group.

Seeing the city's situation with a new set of eyes and a detailed review by people with expertise and experience different from that of the city council, mayor and other city officials could produce real results. The advisory group might notice things that others have missed — things small and large that could be, or should be, changed. New ways of looking at things could lead to new ways of doing things.

The status quo, in the case of city finances, is not sustainable — and is not acceptable.

As was expected of the county's committee, the city's financial advisory group should look at everything, the obvious and the obscure, the large and small. It should challenge long-standing practices and look for straightforward or creative ways to cut expenses.

The county committee made short-term and longer-term recommendations. It stressed the need to control health care costs and the importance of having employees pay a fair share of that expense. This is no doubt true in the city also.

The county group looked at assessment, tax collection and a proposal for controlling pension costs by changing eligibility.

A city advisory committee with a broad range of expertise and experience could help the city move forward on controlling costs, while freeing up money to be used to resurface streets or otherwise make the city more attractive to residents and businesses.

The city should be working on forming such a committee, and tapping some of this community's talent — sooner rather than later.