Keeping an eye on the bottom line

 

Perhaps the most important responsibility of elected officials is careful stewardship of public funds. Our supervisors set policy that staff carries out. Sounds simple, but successful management is complicated and requires dedication to following those procedures and internal controls to ensure transparency and accountability.

Earlier this week, the county announced that it had earned the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) Distinguished Budget Presentation Award for the FY2024 Budget, for the ninth time since 2015.

The award reflects the commitment of the Board of Supervisors and staff to meeting the highest principles of governmental budgeting. To receive this award, the County satisfied nationally recognized guidelines for effective budget presentation. These guidelines assess how well the budget serves as a policy document, financial plan, operations guide, and communications device. (See https://county-goochland-va-budget-book.cleargov.com/17572/introduction/history-of-city for details.)

A vital component of excellent fiscal management is oversight rather than micromanagement by elected officials. Goochland’s finance and audit committee comprised of three supervisors, the county administrator, and Director of Financial Services, meets quarterly to review financial statements and discuss other pertinent matters.

The most recent meeting of this group was held on August 7.  The first item on the agenda was the kickoff for the annual certified financial report, ACFR, which is performed by an outside auditing firm. PBMares (https://www.pbmares.com/) which has served the county well in the past, recently had its contract renewed for five years.

Mike Garber, based in Harrisonburg, a partner of PBMares and state and local government team co-leader, presented, as he has done in recent years, a brief overview of the ACFER process.

Committee Chair Tom Winfree, District 3 and member Jonathan Christy, District 1, elected last November, are new to the procedures. Garber gave them some insight about the ACFR process. PBMares assigns a team whose members use their different areas of expertise to review Goochland’s financial operations and complete various reports in a timely manner.

Garber said that the PBMares team is available to answer questions from the county to ensure that financial activities are in compliance with all policies. Areas examined during the ACFR process include how grant money and state and federal funding is used.

As PBMares works through the audit process it tests internal controls and offers suggestions to correct them if they are not working.

In addition to the audit, PBMares prepares landfill certification for the Department of Environmental Quality and reports about Virginia Retirement System activity.

Recovering from the bad old days, Goochland has been considered a low-risk auditee and works hard to keep that status. This is the product of hard work and attention to detail by county and school division staff.

The ACFR for fiscal 2024, which ended on June 30, will be presented to the supervisors later this year. Garber congratulated the county and school division for their good work in financial matters.

Director of Financial Services Carla Cave then gave year-end projections for FY2024. As the county uses a 45-day accrual process, final figures for the year are not yet available. Cave said, that so far, general fund revenues are a bit shy of projections because assumptions used for building inspections may have been overstated.  Most departments did not spend their entire budget according to preliminary reports. She was optimistic that final numbers would be more positive.

A crucial part of good stewardship is oversight by the supervisors. The annual budget is adopted in April, but sometimes money needs to be moved from one fund to another without increasing the overall budget. Many of these adjustments are for minor amounts, but larger amounts require board approval.

A case in point came later in the afternoon during the monthly board meeting, when an item was pulled from the consent agenda—a laundry list of routine matters—for discussion by the supervisors. It concerned funds to build about one-half mile of sidewalk in Courthouse Village.

From the board packet … “Goochland County was awarded $1,130,220 from the Transportation Alternatives grant to build a portion of the sidewalk network within the Courthouse Village. This sidewalk construction is identified as a Vision Element and the top transportation priority of the Courthouse Village Small Area Plan.  The county currently has the following funds available:  $960,826 – East End Trail funds. The funds were identified as available for transfer given the history of the East End Trail project. Transferring these allows funds previously identified for one pedestrian facility to be utilized for another pedestrian facility.”

In order to accept the federal grant money, the county must supply matching funds. Jonathan Lyle, District 5 contended that the idle money in the East End Trail fund should be put to immediate use. He said that, should the East End Trail project, on hold for a variety of reasons, move forward, the $960 k could be replenished within a month.   

Neil Spoonhower, District 2 said he has been a big fan of improving sidewalks in Courthouse Village since he took office in 2020 but has trouble “stomaching” $1.6 million for this short sidewalk.   However, he also believes that turning down the federal money would be a disservice to citizens. He said that he would like to “bring light” to what he considers out of control and unnecessarily outrageous costs for small projects like this sidewalk by including the topic in the county’s legislative agenda discussion with our delegation to the General Assembly and shared with the Commonwealth Secretary of Transportation.

The supervisors voted unanimously to transfer and appropriate the funds in the 2025 capital improvement fund to build the sidewalk.