Finance committee presses administration for clearer grant accounting and effects on county general fund

At a March 18 virtual meeting, the Barnstable County Assembly of Delegates’ Standing Committee on Finance pressed county administrators for clearer accounting of grant revenues and for a better way to show how grant-funded positions affect the general fund and unreserved reserves.

Deputy Speaker Fryel led the questioning, saying committee members reviewing the budget book want to know how to interpret grant-related lines that show FTEs supported partly or wholly by grants. “We want to see whether how this impacts the county’s finances… and what kind of tail liabilities there could be if grants were terminated,” he said, noting that past concerns about potential grant losses prompted the committee’s earlier review.

Deputy Administrator Herique told the committee that the administration deliberately avoids co-mingling grant information with the general fund operating budget so the Assembly can clearly see what it is being asked to appropriate. “We sought to present that… in a summary fashion,” he said, adding the packet includes current FY26 grant awards, the FTEs they support and a projection of FY27 grant-funded FTEs and salary costs.

Committee members raised three related questions: whether grants can create apparent year-end surpluses that affect the county’s unreserved fund balance; whether the finance office accrues grant revenue over the fiscal year or records it when received; and whether the county can present grant revenues and expenditures in a grant-by-grant, revenue-and-expense format analogous to the general fund presentation.

Deputy Speaker Fryel and Delegate King said such a presentation would improve transparency. “We have grant-funded positions that… at the end of the year or throughout the year we kind of get a reconciliation of that,” King said, adding he is chiefly interested in how much grant revenue is coming in and how it is recognized.

Staff explained practical accounting constraints. Herique said grants are recorded with distinct fund or project numbers in the county’s financial system (Munis) and some grants are reimbursement-based while others are multi-year with budgets that reflect scheduled expenditures. Administrator Dutton added that the county does not move leftover grant funds into county reserves; unspent grant monies typically are returned to the grantor or rolled forward per grant terms. “We expend those funds over that time period… but we don’t… reserve those funds in the county reserves,” Dutton said.

The committee reviewed three prior recommendations from its own report and asked for follow-up detail: (1) present department budgets with a distinct line item for grant revenue to align presentation with the commission’s approach; (2) explicitly show grant-related surpluses either within budget materials or via a regular report tying them to the unreserved balance; and (3) track new positions that begin as grant-funded and later transfer to the general fund.

Deputy Administrator Herique and staff said they have produced spreadsheets showing grants, supported positions and salary/fringe amounts and offered to work with committee members to shape a revenue/expense presentation that meets the committee’s needs. Herique suggested consulting offline to define the precise format and calculations the committee wants.

The committee then turned to guidance for standing committees’ review of the FY2027 operating budget. Members debated whether to provide more detailed review instructions for newer committee members or to rely on committee chairs to identify areas needing deeper scrutiny. The meeting closed on a motion to adjourn that passed unanimously on roll call.

What happens next: staff offered to consult with members to produce either a grant budget-style presentation or tailored reports (for example: per-grant revenue and expenditures, and a tracking table for positions migrating from grant to general fund). The committee did not adopt a formal ordinance or motion related to grant accounting during the meeting.