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County finance warns $11.1M county revenue shortfall; DMF requests restoring audit funding and CAMA upgrade
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Summary
Department of Management & Finance reported an $11.1M county-only revenue shortfall and outlined targeted investments (budget tooling, p-card audit software, and a $2.25M CAMA upgrade); DMF recommends drawing contingency and restoring ongoing internal-audit funding.
The Department of Management & Finance (DMF) delivered a midyear fiscal briefing that highlighted a county-only revenue shortfall of about $11.1 million and described several targeted investments DMF recommends to protect fiscal controls.
DMF leadership emphasized the department’s lean staffing relative to peer jurisdictions and urged measured investments in controls and technology. The presentation proposed three near-term items: budgeting software to improve capital planning and publication, a p-card auditing tool (one-time $10,000 implementation and $15,000 ongoing) to increase transaction coverage and risk detection across roughly 300 active cardholders, and restoring $217,000 in ongoing internal-audit contract funding to stabilize the audit program’s follow-up capacity.
Derek Dube, director of real estate assessments, underscored the need for a new computer-assisted mass appraisal (CAMA) system to modernize assessments of more than 66,000 parcels. DMF said the CAMA capital project is a generational upgrade at $2.25 million and will improve analytics, GIS integration and workflow automation. "This system is going to take our old antiquated system that's been around for over 20 years, and move us light years ahead," Dube said.
Manager Schwartz reported the midyear shortfall and outlined a plan to cover it: drawing on a county contingency balance (about $9M available of the contingency), dipping into the self-insurance reserve, and returning $5M in Barcroft repayment funds into contingency for board use. Schools will also contribute approximately $3.8M toward the broader shortfall.
DMF also highlighted operational achievements—Prism Plus/Prism implementation, Arlington View (a data platform that accelerates reporting), Arlington Wallet (public financial transparency tool)—while warning of cumulative workload pressures from GASB accounting changes and expanded prevailing-wage and living-wage compliance monitoring. DMF suggested the board consider restoring audited resources going forward and noted several areas where modest staff increases could materially reduce risk.
Board members asked for public availability of audit reports (DMF confirmed most audit reports are published) and requested follow-up materials on the shortfall, contingency movements and the CAMA implementation timeline. DMF said a memorandum would be circulated to the board soon with additional detail.
