Council updates financial policy to improve operational flexibility and reporting

The Amarillo City Council adopted a revision to the city’s financial policies on Oct. 28 that clarifies how budget adjustments and internal transfers are handled and improves reporting to council on department‑level overages.

Key points of the policy revision
- The city manager will notify council when an individual department within a fund exceeds its adopted budget; the notice must describe the cause and proposed mitigation or corrective plan.
- The policy language permits transfers between expenditure accounts within a department when necessary to execute accounting entries required to facilitate transactions already approved in the annual budget (for example, budget moves related to capital fund transfers to fleet or other internal service accounts), while still requiring council notification of department total overages.

Why it matters: The change strikes a balance between operational efficiency and council oversight. Staff said the previous version would have required more frequent formal budget amendments or not allowed routine accounting moves that are necessary to reflect capital and interdepartmental transactions.

Council action: Council voted to adopt the revised financial policy in a single reading after staff incorporated council feedback that removed a narrower dollar threshold and added notification requirements for department‑level overages.

Ending: City staff will present annual financial reporting under the new policy and bring back any recommended adjustments based on operational experience.