Question

Local Elected Body Discretionary Pool of Funds and Off Budget Session Funding Requests

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Leslie Beauregard
Leslie Beauregard asked
9 Jul 2012

If other localities budget a pool of funds for their elected bodies to use during the fiscal year, how is it determined what gets funded? Do the elected officials prioritize use of these funds or just use them as a contingency fund during the year when items they want to fund outside the budget process come up?

How do other localities handle requests from agencies and groups that ask for funds outside the regular budget process?

Thanks!

Leslie Beauregard

Response needed by Thursday, July 12, 2012




Eric Johnson
Eric Johnson said
10 Jul 2012

We establish a reserve for contingencies within the budget. Those funds cannot be used without a budget amendment being first approved by our county commission since a reserve must be appropriated (a reserve cannot be directly spent).

Making budgetary decisions outside the budget process should be constrained to those that cannot be avoided and could not have been anticipated. Towards that end our adopted policy on the use of contingency requires a determination that the use "could not be reasonably anticipated during the current year's budget process and without funding would result in material financial detriment to the county," and/or results from a new mandate, and/or "are offset by new revenue that cannot be appropriated in the current year, and/or "would not be part of any county competitive funding program in the following year." This last part recognizes that non-profits routinely compete for funding here in the budget process and we don't want one skipping the process to secure funding.

We require a supermajority vote to approve any such uses -- although Board policies can be changed by a simple majority vote.

The underlying concept is that during a budget process, the cost of any program is measured not so much in terms of dollars but in terms of the alternate programs that could be funded. Mid-year requests don't have that same validation process of considering alternate uses.

With all that said, you can put in place a formal process but that doesn't mean that you won't be asked to find some alternate source to fund an opportunity that arises during the year. The better you steer requests to the budget process, the more meaningful that process becomes.

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Answers

 
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John Konior
John Konior said
10 Jul 2012

Most requests are done during the budget process and officially requested by the organization. Off budget cycle requests typically go to a Board or Commission (i.e. Parks and Recreation Commission if the request is sports related). That Board or Commission makes a recommendation and then it is taken up at a Council meeting for Council consideration. There is not a pot of funds, so funding must come from cost savings or fund balances.

 
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Robert Davidsson
Robert Davidsson said
12 Jul 2012

Prior to December 2009, Palm Beach County, FL, Commissioners had "discretionary spending accounts" which allowed them to fund projects based on merit or need in their districts, outside of the Budget process. However, in the wake of the indictment and removal of three commissioners and a grand jury investigation, the Commission ended the practice on Dec. 15, 2009, as well as at the same time establishing a Commission of Ethics and Inspector General's Office to oversee future county actions.

 
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David Collinsworth
David Collinsworth said
17 Jul 2012

The City used to get such funding requests throughout the year, typically when a particular local organization's fiscal year was nearing the end, which didn't always mesh well with our fiscal year. We decided to formalize our process and now each summer, we prepare an application packet and send to agencies already funded and ask them to submit any planned funding request they anticipate for our upcoming fiscal year. Once received, staff reviews the applications for completeness and makes a recommendation to City Council through our normal budgetary process in the fall. Now, any mid-year requests we receive we simply refer to our application process and deal with at that time. Its a more efficient and purposeful approach since we see all requests at one time now.

 
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Leslie Beauregard
Leslie Beauregard said
17 Oct 2012

Thanks everyone who posted a response. I wanted to share what our Council ended up adopting this past week regarding this issue.

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