Walworth County's Finance Committee on Thursday approved multiple ordinance and resolution changes to reorganize capital reserves, create a transit fund and begin tightening controls and transparency over the use of fund balance and related revenues.

The committee adopted Ordinance 7-25 and Resolution 7-25, which transfer building and equipment reserves and park reserves into the capital projects fund and establish a committed reserve for the county's five-year capital improvement plan. "We're transferring over the building and equipment reserves and the park reserves over to the capital projects fund," a finance staff member explained during the presentation.

Under the new presentation, staff said the $7,900,000 previously labeled as building and equipment reserves would be shown instead as $3,700,000 set aside for the five-year capital plan and $4,200,000 available for other capital improvements. The finance staff member said the change is a presentation reform — "It's not a new fund. It's just a new way of presenting all of those funding sources." The ordinance also renames the building and equipment reserve to a "capital improvement reserve" to broaden allowable uses beyond buildings and equipment.

The committee also approved an ordinance and resolution to establish a transit fund. Staff said the transit fund name better aligns with grant names and that activity would be shown retroactive to the beginning of 2025 to allow a full-year view for financial statements. "By naming this fund transit, it's a little more specific... keeping our capital projects will remain in this fund similar to how the CDEP fund works," a finance staff member said.

Separately, the committee directed staff to draft ordinance language and administrative changes to tighten controls over the use of fund balance. The proposal would divide fund balance into "elective" reserves (for planned capital and stabilization) and "non-elective" reserves (for accounting-driven items such as encumbrances, donor restrictions and post-employment liabilities). Finance staff described one possible change: requiring a two-thirds majority of the County Board for use of fund balance in many cases while creating project contingency budgets in the annual budget to preserve limited flexibility at the department level.

Finance staff also recommended increased reporting and transparency for "related revenue" budget amendments — those that increase both revenue and expense (for example, a grant award larger than anticipated). In 2024, staff reported, the county processed 70 administrator-level related-revenue budget amendments totaling about $328,000 and 23 Finance Committee–level amendments totaling almost $1,960,000. The committee voted to require quarterly reporting of related-revenue amendments to the Finance Committee.

Votes and next steps: The committee approved the ordinances and resolutions as presented. Members also passed a motion directing staff to draft the detailed ordinance and workflow changes and to return with proposed language; staff said they will try to have drafts for review in July but that ordinance text might not be ready until September. The committee also voted to receive quarterly reports on related-revenue budget amendments going forward.