Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Municipal Finance topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
PFM demonstrates 10‑year financial model as council discusses long‑term options
Summary
PFM consultants and Clive staff showed a live 10‑year financial model that allows scenario testing and policy 'initiatives' such as levy changes and property‑tax reform. Staff and consultants said the model will support multi‑year planning and be available for the city to run in-house; council members pressed for clarity on assumptions and retainer-fee increases for consulting services.
Clive City staff and consultants from PFM presented a live demonstration of a 10‑year financial model on March 12 designed to help the city test scenarios for revenues and expenditures, model possible policy initiatives and plan for long‑term fiscal impacts.
Matt, the city’s budget lead, described the project as a follow‑up to recent budget workshops and said the tool is intended to help the council evaluate options across four “buckets” (revenue enhancements, expenditure reductions, expenditure shifting and combinations of those choices). Randy Bauer of PFM explained the model uses multi‑year historic data, assumptions tabs, initiative toggles and fund‑level filters. "The starting point is always historic data," Randy said, noting thousands of GL lines were loaded and that the tool makes assumptions visible and auditable.
PFM and city staff showed how the model can toggle initiatives on and off to illustrate impacts in real time and discuss property‑tax reform scenarios by placing assumptions in a dedicated property‑tax tab. Staff said the city will license the model for the city's exclusive use and that Corey Eastman, the finance manager, has been working directly with PFM to maintain and update it.
Council members asked about how the model will be maintained and about PFM's retainer fees; one council member raised concern about a large increase in the retainer. Staff acknowledged the retainer had not been updated for more than a decade and said the adjustment reflects additional hours and expanded work the firm is performing for the city. Staff described possible phased approaches for retainer increases.
Next steps identified during the presentation include continued benchmarking (phase 2) to compare Clive to peer cities, optional phase 3 work on economic and community‑development strategies, and staff availability to run or revise the model as policy proposals (including state property‑tax reform) become clearer.
