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Council questions transparency on fund balances and requests rate‑impact analysis for utility CIP
Summary
Councilmembers at the Oct. 15 workshop pressed staff on legacy budget entries in the ERP system, negative balances in an internal service fund and asked that rate impacts of planned utility projects be presented before final approvals.
Oshkosh councilmembers used a workshop Oct. 15 to press staff on fund balances carried through the city's ERP system and on how planned utility projects could affect future rates. Finance staff described legacy budget entries and identified an internal service fund deficit that likely will require a year‑end transfer.
Finance staff said some long‑running CIP items—Clearwell was cited as an example—have legacy budgets left in the ERP (Munis) that were never cleared when projects slipped. The result, staff said, is that Munis can show multi‑year amounts (finance cited an example of $90,000,000 appearing for Clearwell in the system) that do not reflect the actual planned cash flow for 2026. The finance director said the department will clean up the ERP and work with departments on when projects should be placed back into the CIP.
Separately, staff told council that an internal service fund has a negative fund balance of roughly $2,000,000 because internal charges (for example, fuel and garage charges) were not billed to using departments in one past year. The budget plan proposes transferring funds and adjusting charges to return that internal service fund to net zero; staff said they will watch year‑end 2025 results before asking council for a budget adjustment.
Councilmembers asked for an estimate of the rate impact from the aggregate utility projects before the council formally approves the CIP so that elected officials can see what the program would mean for utility customers. Staff said they will provide the rate‑impact analysis at an upcoming meeting and that historically such analysis was provided in a separate workshop conducted before final approvals.
Ending: Finance and public‑works staff committed to cleaning legacy ERP entries, presenting a near‑term rate‑impact estimate for utility projects, and returning to council with fund‑balance and any necessary budget‑adjustment requests near year‑end.
