Council hears request to reallocate previously budgeted CIP construction funds after rollover error

Joe Tucker asked the council to reallocate construction funding that had been budgeted in the prior fiscal year but was not rolled into a project account and therefore did not appear in the current budget. Tucker described the project phase (Grandview to Parkway) and said design services are complete for some phases and that construction funding needs to be reallocated to let bids proceed.

Finance staff explained the city's encumbrance and rollover process and said the item should have been assigned to a project account but was not because a PO had not been issued prior to rolling budgets. Council members discussed whether the city should create project accounts at the time a resolution is passed to prevent administrative delay; finance staff said project setup upon council approval is routine but this packet item had not been handled correctly during the budget process.

Staff suggested the future use of a formal supplemental or explicit encumbrance tracking in the budget to avoid repeat rollovers and proposed better coordination between project managers and finance staff. The council asked follow‑up questions about automation and whether system changes would help; staff said the process remains manual by design so council can review and adjust rollovers annually.

No formal vote was taken during the workshop; staff will present recommended rollovers and/or supplemental requests as appropriate.