2012-2013 Budget - City of Saginaw MI

Chapter VII, Section 47 Budget Control, a quarterly budget adjustment is submitted to the legislative body for reappropriationof approved funding.EncumbrancesEncumbrances are commitments under purchase orders or contracts. Outstanding encumbrances at year-end are notrecorded as expenditures until the goods or services are received. Only those encumbrances that are recorded as payablesat June 30 are included as expenditures for budgetary presentations. Fund balance has been reserved for all outstandingencumbrances in the governmental fund types and will be recorded as expenditures in the subsequent fiscal year. Inaccordance with the Uniform Budgeting and Accounting Act, all encumbrances, of a fund that ends in a deficit, arecancelled and expenditures are assessed against the next year’s budget.Reservations and Designations of Fund EquitiesReservations of fund balance are established to identify (1) claims against resources of the entity that have notmaterialized as liabilities at the balance sheet date or (2) the existence of assets that, because of their non-monetary natureor lack of liquidity, represent financial resources not available for current appropriation or expenditure, for example:encumbrances, prepaid items, inventories, specific projects, and long-term advances to other funds. Such reserves are notintended as valuation allowances, but merely demonstrate the current unavailability of the subject assets to pay currentexpenditures. The City of Saginaw operates from a balanced budget at the onset of every fiscal year. Undesignated fundbalance or prior year budgetary surplus can be appropriated to balance a fund’s budget if a sufficient balance/surplusexists and the appropriation is fiscally prudent.Citi-Stat and Performance ManagementIn an effort to align our City Council goals with departmental actions and to address Michigan’s Governor Rick Snyder’scall for increased transparency and accountability, the City of Saginaw has refocused the manner in which it tracksperformance. The City’s revised approach is separated into two parallel tracks: CitiStat and Performance Management.For the City the City of Saginaw’s purposes CitiStat is defined as a problem solving mechanism, which is issue focused,inter-departmental, and accompanied by immediate action steps. The City defines its performance management strategyas an analysis and reporting tool, that is intra-departmental and mission focused and integral in long-term planning. Theperformance management process for the City of Saginaw begins in the month preceding the annual budget submissionto City Council and concludes the following year with a comprehensive city-wide performance evaluation document.28