Finance staff reports year-end fund balances, investment allocations; ERP financial module to go live March 18

Miss Patel, finance staff for the Budget and Finance Committee, reported December 2024 year-end and January 2025 monthly financial results and outlined an upcoming enterprise resource planning (ERP) transition during the committee meeting.

The report said the journal (general) fund closed the year with approximately $151,552,000 in revenues and that major contributors to the year were about $145,619,000, against a budgeted $157,000,000. Miss Patel said the budget includes a $2,700,000 vacancy factor. She reported year-end premium pay expenditures of about $2,700,000 for police, $3,300,000 for fire, and $860,000 for EMS.

Why it matters: the committee heard figures the finance staff described as reflecting overall strength in revenues and some cross‑fund savings, information committee members said they use to monitor cash for vendor payments, capital spending and reserve levels.

Miss Patel described the city’s investment posture at year end: roughly $41.15 million in general fund cash, of which about $36.5 million was invested in the Pennsylvania Local Government Investment Trust (PLGIT). Of the PLGIT balance, about $30 million was held in term investments with staggered maturities; the remainder was in higher‑yield money‑market and prime accounts yielding around 4.69% APY. Miss Patel said the finance office also kept liquid general fund balances at TD Bank of about $4.5 million earning roughly 3.5% APY.

On American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds, Miss Patel reported an end‑of‑year cash position of about $22.4 million, with approximately $18.9 million in PLGIT (including about $15.0 million in term investments) and roughly $3.4 million in TD Bank as liquid cash for vendor payments. For the end of January the ARPA cash position was reported at about $20.5 million, with the PLGIT and TD Bank allocations described similarly.

Miss Patel provided brief summaries of other funds: solid waste revenues were reported at about $17.0 million (described as about 2% stronger than budget) with expenditures of about $17.8 million; the risk fund showed revenues of about $35.6 million and expenditures of about $33.6 million; the rental fund and stormwater fund were both described as finishing the period with revenues stronger than budget and expenditures showing savings, with the stormwater fund reported at about $6.1 million in revenues and about $6.9 million in expenditures. The golf fund was reported as closing the year with revenues of about $2.5 million and expenditures of about $2.0 million.

For capital projects, Miss Patel said fourth‑quarter expenditures totaled about $1.5 million with approximately $7.0 million encumbered for future expenditures; she circulated the quarter‑four capital report and said capital project status reports are available and can be discussed at the capital projects committee meetings.

On operations and systems, Miss Patel told the committee that the city is implementing a new ERP, transitioning from Eden to Munis. She said the planned go‑live date for the financial module is March 18, and that payroll and human resources modules are targeted to be live later in the year. Miss Patel said Eden will no longer be functional for live transactions after the Munis financial go‑live but that historical data will remain available for queries and research.

Committee members asked whether the December numbers were final; Miss Patel said one final vendor payment was pending and that the final close for 2024 would occur at the end of the week, with the subsequent report provided the following month. No formal votes or motions were taken during the committee’s discussion.

The meeting adjourned after questions and a brief confirmation of the ERP timeline.