STAFF REPORT TO THE CITY COUNCIL
DATE: Regular Meeting of June 27, 2023
TO: Members of the City Council
VIA: Dante Hall, City Manager
SUBMITTED BY: Edwin Gato, Director of Finance
SUBJECT: Update on the City of Hercules Finance Department RECOMMENDED ACTION:
Receive an update on the City of Hercules Finance Department BACKGROUND:
The Finance Department provides fiscal oversight and control to all City operating departments. As a central support function, the Finance Department administers the City’s budget and works in partnership with other City departments to develop budgets, implement control measures, and maximize the value of the City’s assets. As such, the Department provides quality services in conformance with the highest professional standards and has received various awards for excellence in financial reporting and distinguished budget presentation by national and state organizations of municipal finance officers.
The mission of the Finance Department is to provide accurate, timely, clear, and complete financial information to City Council, City departments, citizens, and the community at large while acting as the chief financial consultant to the City Manager and City Council. The Finance Department is committed to maintaining the financial stability and integrity of the City through sound fiscal policies and procedures that safeguard the City’s assets.
The Finance Department’s primary functions include accounting, budgeting, business licensing, cashiering, short/long-term financial planning and reporting, payroll services, purchasing, vendor payments, and financial support to internal departments.
DISCUSSION:
The Finance Department consists of four staff members, the Finance Director, Senior Accountant, and two Accounting Technicians. The business license administration is currently under contract with Avenu, Insight, & Analytics. The department provides vital services administered through the following units: Budget, Accounting Operations, Accounts Payable, Payroll Services, and Debt and Treasury.
The Finance Department continues to focus on the City Council strategic goal of fiscal sustainability. Toward that goal, the department is engaged in several initiatives to improve and guide Citywide fiscal practices and systems.
Developed a structurally balanced and sustainable operating budget and forecast.
Maintains the City’s Long-Range Financial Plan and its underlying assumptions. The model provides a long-term view of the City’s General Fund and demonstrates the City’s ability to afford its current service levels.
With a focus on best practices in government operations, the Finance department participates in the City’s efforts to review and revise policies and procedures, as necessary.
Accomplishments:
The Finance department focused on numerous initiatives in support of the goal of fiscal sustainability. Highlights include:
Strategically and collaboratively worked with departments and City Manager to balance the annual budget and implement the Hercules Strategic Plan.
Completed the annual financial statements and audit with a clean audit opinion and fifth consecutive year with no audit findings.
Successfully refinanced the City’s Bonds that generated over $2 million in debt service savings.
Proactively addresses delinquent accounts and maximizes City collections and cash flow through audits and collections efforts.
Identified redundancies in processes, analyzed their effectiveness at identifying errors and eliminated ineffective redundancies, saving staff hours weekly.
The City’s Annual Budget document and Financial Reports received various awards for excellence in financial reporting and distinguished budget presentation by national and state organizations of municipal finance officers.
Key Initiative:
The Finance department will launch Opengov, a powerful interactive tool that visualizes the City’s financial data in a user-friendly graphic format, to the internal department. It will provide each department with a financial dashboard, a management tool, that helps to track all the relevant financial transactions, including budget monitoring. It will assist finance with effective cash management and enable tracking of expenditures in detail to meet and outperform the financial objectives of a department.
The Finance department is committed to:
Analyzing the city’s financial position and continuing to develop short- and long-range plans to ensure financial viability.
Providing high quality financial reporting and budget presentations.
Advising city management on business factors affecting the city’s fiscal environment.
Ensuring the security and proper disbursement of funds through effective appropriation management.
Administering the business license and tax ordinances including annual renewals, new licenses, complaints, and coordination with state agencies.
Providing staff training to ensure the division’s technical capabilities remain current.
Develop and update effective administrative policies to maintain internal controls.
Ensuring that city departments obtain the materials and services needed, within budget, and in compliance with procurement policies.
Maximizing investment earnings while safeguarding public funds as established by the City Investment Policy and state law.
FISCAL IMPACT:
There is no fiscal impact associated with receiving this report.
ATTACHMENTS:
Presentation