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Centerville council repeals ordinance holding fund-balance policy, adopts updated policy by resolution
Summary
On Jan. 27 the Centerville City Council repealed a 2020 fund-balance ordinance and, on the meeting’s consent agenda, adopted a revised fund-balance policy that moves some targets from percentage-based calculations to fixed dollar amounts and adds a golf course capital improvement fund.
The Centerville City Council on Jan. 27 voted to repeal the city's 2020 fund-balance ordinance (Ordinance 20-20) and adopted an updated fund-balance policy by resolution on the consent agenda.
City staff said the change is intended to consolidate policy language and make capital fund targets more predictable. "So the ordinance in front of you is repealing the current fund balance policy that we adopted back in 2020," Assistant City Manager and Finance Director Tyler Rourke told council during the public hearing portion of the meeting. He later described the policy changes as not major in substance but intended to improve budgeting.
The new policy adds a golf course capital improvement fund created in the 2023 budget and restructures how targets are calculated for five capital funds. Instead of using a percentage of annual expenditures (the prior policy used a 16 percent target), staff used a five-year average of expenditures and selected fixed-dollar targets that Rourke said are slightly higher than the prior percentage calculation to be conservative. Rourke said the fixed amounts should reduce large year-to-year swings in small funds and make planning more predictable.
City staff attorney Mr. Liberman told council that moving the policy out of the municipal code and adopting it by resolution was consistent with the city's broader effort to consolidate administrative policies. "The question had come to me, regarding our fund balance policy. Did it have to be adopted by ordinance," he said, explaining why the repeal ordinance was on the agenda.
Councilmember Sayer moved to approve Ordinance 03-25 (the repeal of the 2020 fund-balance ordinance). The motion was seconded by a councilmember (not clearly identified in the transcript). The council approved the repeal by voice vote with no opposition recorded. Later in the meeting the updated fund-balance policy was adopted by resolution as part of the consent agenda; the consent agenda was moved and approved by voice vote.
Clarifying details discussed at the hearing and in staff materials include: - The prior fund-balance policy was adopted in 2020 and was previously codified by ordinance. - Five capital improvement funds and four major operating funds are now identified in the policy (nine total funds described in the staff exhibit). - The golf course capital improvement fund was added in the 2023 budget and did not appear in the 2020 policy. - Staff derived fixed-dollar targets using a five-year average of expenditures and the prior 16% target as a reference point; they then increased the resulting amounts modestly to be conservative.
The council did not set an effective date in the public discussion; the updated policy was adopted by resolution on the consent agenda at the same meeting. The resolution and the repeal ordinance together move the city's fund-balance rules out of the codified ordinance text and into an administratively updated policy adopted by council resolution going forward.
