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Finance director outlines procurement centralization, $13.5M in purchase orders and new GASB liability
Summary
Finance Director Cecilia Ward told the Dallas City Council the city centralized purchasing with a new procurement specialist, processed about 111 purchase orders totaling roughly $13.5 million last fiscal year, and is implementing a new GASB requirement for compensated‑absences liability that will increase reported liabilities.
Finance Director Cecilia Ward told the Dallas City Council at its Sept. 2, 2025 work session that the city has centralized purchasing under a new procurement specialist and strengthened purchase‑order oversight.
"We did add 1 FTE this past year, which was the procurement specialist," Ward said, describing the role as a centralized reviewer of purchase orders, by‑decision forms and bid documentation required for purchases over $10,000.
Ward described the city's purchasing rules: purchases above $10,000 require a purchase order and a by‑decision form explaining whether the purchase used the state procurement site or an open market process; frequently purchases tied to the capital improvement plan require a purchase order regardless of other conditions. She told council that centralization was intended to prevent departments from splitting purchases to stay under thresholds and to ensure auditors can reconcile contracts, change orders and final invoices.
The finance director gave fiscal‑year statistics: the city completed 111 purchase orders this past fiscal year with a total amount of about $13,500,000 (prior year: 83 purchase orders). Ward said the department also processed 105 change orders during the year and noted that many change orders reflect freight adjustments, contractor extras or price reductions.
Ward also reviewed capital‑asset tracking and depreciation. Capital assets are those with an initial individual cost above $10,000 and a useful life beyond one year; finance currently tracks about 1,200 assets and added 38 new assets in the past fiscal year. She said the city is migrating records into a new accounting system and is working through issues with depreciation calculations.
On utilities, Ward highlighted that water customers increased roughly 10% over five years and said the city's bulk water station — purchased with ARPA funds — generated about $22,000 in revenue last year and $25,000 this year, allowing the city to pay off the installation in two years. "So it's paid off and so now we just have maintenance, which is about, I think it's about 3,000 a year," Ward said.
Councilors asked a series of operational questions about cross‑training for municipal court administration, whether recurring high monthly bills (for example, Pacific Power) are treated differently, and how the procurement specialist prevents circumvention of thresholds. Ward said some routine monthly obligations are handled outside typical PO rules and that the specialist monitors purchases to catch fragmented procurements.
Ward closed by briefing council on a new Governmental Accounting Standards Board pronouncement that changes how compensated absences (vacation and sick payout) must be reported. "This is a new statement that came out that we have to do for this fiscal year," she said, adding the city has attended GFOA training and is evaluating averaging templates and employee‑level calculations to estimate the liability.
The finance director invited further questions; councilors pressed for details on implementation timing, the use of caps on accruals to bound estimates and thresholds for council approval on high‑value purchases.
