The municipality’s treasury reported Sept. 18 that 2025 year-to-date revenues were ahead of the expected pace in several categories, while finance staff said the city’s audited comprehensive financial report for 2023 still shows no spendable fund balance against the adopted “10 and 2” policy because of timing and accounting of reimbursements.

Treasury overview: Glenn Cipriano presented a revenue summary as of Sept. 12 showing year-to-date realized revenues of about $458,700,000 against a budgeted $597,200,000—roughly 76.8% realized—above the typical seasonal expectation. Property tax collections were nearly complete at 99.7%. The report noted declines in some quarterly streams such as retail vehicle tax and room tax compared with 2024, and variance in cash pool earnings tied to market moves after Federal Reserve rate changes.

Fund-balance explanation: Finance staff member Falsy explained the assembly’s adopted fund-balance policy (the “10 and 2”) and how to read the ACFR. He said the ACFR’s line labeled “other unassigned” shows a negative $51,000,000 for 2023, which means the municipality had not met the fund-balance targets at that reporting date. Falsy said much of the shortfall reflected emergency spending for the 2018 earthquake and the COVID response that the municipality expected to recover via FEMA and other reimbursements; the staff reported they recovered about 99% of those funds and that the timing of entries and transfers in the ACFR affects the reported figures.

Why it matters: the 10% bond-rating reserve and the 2% working capital reserve help support the municipality’s credit rating and borrowing costs and are reviewed by rating agencies. Falsy told the committee the municipality may show a positive spendable fund balance when 2024 closes, but that the true reconciled picture depends on transfers and FEMA reimbursements that will be finalized through the 2024 closeout and early 2026 ACFR timetable.

Discussion and requests: assembly members asked for more granular breakouts on specific variances, including a $1,000,000 differential in property tax collection and the composition of building safety fund performance. Members asked for follow-up data on motor fuel excise tax scenarios and on the composition of garnishments and PFD (Permanent Fund Dividend) garnishment processes. Finance staff said some of those details require additional accounting queries and that human-resources and procurement timing affect when application or hiring counts are released.

Next steps: staff said the municipality plans to continue closing ARPA and FEMA items and will present further audit and fund-balance detail in a future work session once 2024 closeout entries and ACFAR/ACFR transfers are complete. No formal committee action was taken Sept. 18.