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Finance committee presses for better budget delivery, online transparency and consistent reporting
Summary
Committee members criticized late delivery of large budget packets, discussed new budgeting software and called for online, public-facing budget data and clearer monthly reconciliations separating obligated purchase orders from available cash.
Committee members spent significant time criticizing the timing and format of budget materials delivered before the meeting and urged staff to adopt clearer, public-facing budget tools.
Several committee members said they received large stacks of budget documents at the start of the meeting and had insufficient time to review them. Finance staff said the city is migrating to a new budget-development platform (ClearGov) and is also reconciling account structures in the current enterprise system (referred to as "Tyler"). Staff described the migration as in-progress and said the intent is to publish the budget online so the council, public and departments can view line-by-line information during budget development.
A council member said the new online system will be a "game changer" for transparency; staff said the new process will allow the public and council to click through each line-item. Committee members requested monthly DFA-style reconciliations that distinguish between: beginning cash, restricted funds, obligated purchase orders (POs), and available cash. Several members asked for vehicle and auction reports on a quarterly basis and urged improved inventory tracking on rolling equipment.
No formal votes were required for the software or process discussion. Staff said they had recently met with the new vendor, were building a chart of accounts for migration, and planned to provide improved reports to the committee in the coming months.
