Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Finance topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Winchester City outlines finance priorities: review fees, protect AAA rating, modernize financial systems
Summary
Finance staff presented a high-level update on fee and tax reviews, pilot program monitoring, maintaining the city's AAA bond rating and a multiyear effort to modernize the city's finance/ERP systems.
Winchester City finance staff on Wednesday presented strategic priorities focused on revenue stability and the modernization of the city's financial technology.
Mary (finance presenter) told the Strategic Planning Committee the first priority is a comprehensive review of fees, taxes and charges for services to ensure those revenue sources adequately cover costs while complying with applicable fiscal policies. She said one objective is to preserve Winchester City's AAA bond rating, which the city first received in 2013.
"Maintaining the AAA bond rating" was listed as a key objective in the finance section, staff said; Mary added that the rating helps the city receive favorable interest rates for general-obligation bond sales.
Staff recommended an annual review of pilot programs that provide partial payments in lieu of taxes for certain tax-exempt properties and said those pilots differ by terms and review schedule. Committee members asked for a consolidated list of pilot programs, their expiration terms and review dates.
On systems, staff told the committee the city's core finance/ERP platform has reached the vendor's end-of-life and that a multi-year project to replace or modernize that platform will be required. Staff cautioned the effort could be a high-cost, multi-year undertaking that may include coordination with the school system and other partners who share modules of the current systems.
Performance measures proposed included maintaining clean audits, continuing to seek certificates of achievement for budget presentation and tracking metrics prioritized by rating agencies.
Ending: Finance staff said they will return with more detailed proposals and timelines; the committee agreed to continue finance items at a future work session.
