Stonecrest finance director reports February revenues exceed expenses; council discusses Tyler access and public transparency

Finance Director Evelyn Gaines told the Stonecrest City Council at its work session that February 2025 revenues exceeded expenses and that other funds have collected notable receipts, while staff continues to roll out the city's Tyler financial system.

"So our revenue that we've taken in so far this year is 3,500,000.0," Gaines said, adding that year-to-date revenues outpaced spending. She told the council court revenue for February was approximately $4,146.47 and said finance is completing Tyler training and preparing solicitations.

The update prompted questions about timing and access. Mayor Jasmine Cobble noted the report covered February because the city operates at least two months in arrears: "we operate at least 2 months in arrears," she said, explaining monthly closings and reconciliations cause the lag.

Councilmembers pressed Gaines and the city manager about council access to Tyler. Gaines said the city council currently has read-only visibility of the council's budget dashboard in Tyler but does not have system-wide access to other departments' accounts. "As it stands right now, does not have access to all of the, financial reports within, the system, only that which, impacts city council members," she said, and offered to run reports for council on request.

Councilmember Tara Graves asked whether the council could receive training to run broader budget queries herself. Gaines said staff is arranging training, beginning with department staff to ensure accurate entries and timely payments, and then department heads will learn how to run queries and reports.

The city manager and Gaines told council members that expanding access beyond each department's assigned lines would require system configuration, possibly assigning every account to council users, and additional staffing. The city manager said a public-facing transparency tool is planned as a later phase: once internal processes and chart-of-account crosswalks are stable and staff are trained, a public-facing dashboard could show more current data (with some lag relative to internal records).

Timelines offered were general: staff suggested completing internal rollout and training before the end of the year, with a public-facing version possibly nearer that point. The manager said the public-facing display might shorten the current two-month lag but would not be strictly real time.

Councilmembers asked for timely posting of the packet; Gaines said the February report would be posted to the city website "as of tomorrow."

Council direction and next steps: staff will continue Tyler implementation and training, confirm which accounts the council can already see, and return with details on whether and what it would take to provide broader council read-only access or a public-facing transparency dashboard.

Ending: Gaines said she will follow up with a March update and provide clarifications requested about fines and forfeitures and capital outlay variances.