COUNTY OF SAN MATEO

Inter-Departmental Correspondence

County Manager’s Office

 

DATE:

April 22, 2005

BOARD MEETING DATE:

May 3, 2005

SPECIAL NOTICE/HEARING:

None

VOTE REQUIRED:

None

 

TO:

Honorable Board of Supervisors

FROM:

John L. Maltbie, County Manager

SUBJECT:

Budget Award Presentation

 

RECOMMENDATION

Accept the Distinguished Budget Presentation Award for FY 2004-06 from the Government Finance Officer’s Association (GFOA).

 

VISION ALIGNMENT:

Commitment: Responsive, effective and collaborative government.

Goal 21: County employees understand, support and integrate the County vision and goals into their delivery of services.

This achievement contributes to the goal by using best practices to ensure that the County budget is easily understood and readable to the general public; that programs align with the County’s Shared Vision 2010 goals and commitments; that there are sufficient resources in the County’s budget to fund programs; and that all programs have meaningful and measurable performance indicators. San Mateo County is one of only five counties in California that have received the GFOA Distinguished Budget Presentation Award.

 

BACKGROUND

The Government Finance Officer’s Association (GFOA) is a nonprofit professional association serving 14,000 government finance professionals throughout North America. Since the inception of the GFOA’s Distinguished Budget Presentation Awards Program in 1984, approximately 900 entities have received the award. Recipients have pioneered efforts to improve the quality of budgeting and provide an excellent example for other governments throughout North America. The GFOA’s Budget Awards Program is the only national awards program for governmental budgeting. In order to receive the award, the entity has to satisfy nationally recognized guidelines for effective budget presentation. These guidelines are designed to assess how well an entity’s budget serves as (1) a policy document; (2) a financial plan; (3) an operations guide; and (4) a communications device. The budget document must be rated “proficient” in all four categories to receive the award.

DISCUSSION

The County Manager’s Office originally submitted the FYs 2003-05 budget to GFOA for the award and was rated proficient in only two of the four required categories: as an operations guide and a communications device. Using the feedback received from GFOA’s independent reviewers from other jurisdictions, a number of changes were made to the budget document to satisfy criteria needed to achieve proficiency as a policy document and a financial plan, including:

    Ø Made the document more user friendly by adding budget unit/program locators

    Ø Added a County Profile, which includes information on the County’s history, geography, economy, income and housing demographics, industries and transportation

    Ø Added a chart illustrating the County’s fund structure

    Ø Added data tables to the Total Sources and Total Requirements pie charts

    Ø Provided more detailed analysis of revenues and revenue projections

    Ø Provided more detailed analysis on projected fund balance changes

    Ø Provided more information on position changes

    Ø Added a separate section on County priorities and performance goals

    Ø Added a section on Long-Term Financial Policies

    Ø Enhanced the section on the County Budget Process

These changes have significantly improved the content and overall readability of the budget document and resulted in the County’s successful receipt of the award for the FY 2004-06 Budget.

In the upcoming budget cycle further improvements will include:

    Ø Adding an entire section on Shared Vision 2010, including history, development and updates

    Ø Improving the linkages between Shared Vision 2010 goals, program performance measures and funding adjustments

    Ø Adding descriptions of major and non-major funds

    Ø Providing a summary of the County’s capital project expenditures for roads, special districts and facilities in a single location

The GFOA Budget Award represents the highest form of recognition in governmental budgeting and its attainment is a significant achievement. San Mateo County is one of only five California counties that received the budget award and one of only four counties in the State that received both the budget award and the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting (CAFR Program), which is the GFOA’s equivalent award for financial statements.

All County employees that participated in the budget process should be commended for this outstanding achievement!