Accomplishments and Problems

Accomplishments

The Finance Department has received the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting for its comprehensive annual financial report for the tenth consecutive year.

A significant accomplishment for the Finance Department was the collective effort to comply with requirements of the new GASB #34 reporting model. This was the biggest change in decades in how governments report financial information. The June 30, 2003 financial statements reflect a major portion of this implementation, which was recently awarded the certificate mentioned above.

Due to the work of Finance Department personnel, the Director was able to dedicate the time necessary to invest the City’s funds, earning twice the rate of return for comparable cities.  The investment income from pooled investments amounted to $260,167 for FY 2004.  Income from other investments (Event Center/Sewer and Solid Waste Reserves) amounted to $312,895 for FY 2004.

Administrative fee income for FY 2004 amounted to $830,983.  Of this amount, $504,303 was directly attributable to the work performed by the Finance Department.  This is $185,549 more than the entire Finance Department budget for FY 2005.

Increased General Fund balance by $1.5 million.

Significant Problems - Last 3 Years

Event Center – Providing information and trying to sell bonds in a conflicting political environment was very difficult and consumed huge amounts of time and effort.  Land transfer issues and the first Vision Iowa drawdown continued to be very time consuming and difficult.

State Funding Cut – 2003  -  The State of Iowa cut approximately $500,000 of General Fund revenue after the FY 2004 budget was certified.  Providing information and dealing with all the related issues consumed significant time and effort. 

Homestead/Other Credit Funding -  Dealing with the uncertainty of State funding on these credits lends to a great deal of difficulty in projecting revenue and necessary property tax levies.

Implementing GASB34 – We had to change our whole accounting system so it would provide information by “function” to comply with GASB 34.  We still have to come up with infrastructure to fully comply by 2006.

General Fund Revenue Limitation -  The property tax revenue we receive to pay for general government services is 43% lower than our comparable cities.

Information Technology (IT)  -  Trying to keep abreast of computer operations and issues is very difficult without an on-site IT person.