FINANCES
01 | DATA MORE AVAILABLE T O PUBLIC 02 |ALLOW FOR MORE ONLINE PAYMENTS 03 | IMPROVE ABILITY TO MORE EFFECTIVELY BUDGET from a lot of different folks when we were looking at the requirements of the software,” he added. “So there has been involvement from a number of departments, not just HR, finance, and IT.” Most of the group meeting with Tyler reps is made up of employees from the finance and human resources departments, but there are representatives from a wide variety of other City departments, too. Once that work is completed, actual employee training will begin, which means more staff time will be dedicated to the project. “There will be folks from just about every department involved in this. Department heads, superintendents, everyone managing a budget…they’re going to be taking part in the training,” Lakefield said. Lakefield said the plan is to create the 2021 budget using the new system, and that process will begin in the spring of 2020 even though Phase 1 of the system won’t yet be operational. “Our budget is created over a few months and approved in August and September, so it’s sometimes difficult to project accurate figures over 12 months or even 18 months,” Lakefield said. “We’ll have a lot more real-time and up-to-date data and details available with the new system when we’re going through the budget process.” City Manager, Tom Barry, said the project has been a long time in the making and has been a major goal of his since joining the city. “ This is a multi year and multi million dollar investment that took considerable time to plan and position into the budget.” Barry recalls. “The the impact to our operation will be incredible.” The Tyler system will allow employees to create more accurate graphs and charts with current data, which will make City offices more efficient while providing better information to department heads, City Council members, and members of the public. But getting to that point will take countless hours by an untold number of employees over the next two years. “In the end, we’ll have a better and more modern system that will allow us to do so much more than we can today,” Lakefield said. “But it’s going to be a time-consuming and challenging process to get to the finish line.”
BETTER BUDGET PROCESS
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he City continued reforming its annual budget process to embrace a more collaborative, anticipatory, and proactive approach inclusive of early public input meetings, early development of City Council priorities and principles, public education and involvement, and historical trending of five-year expenditures to justify budget requests. Continuing a multi-year financial correction of Minot’s financial outlook resulted in restoring $13 million per year in revenue
FUNDING FLOOD CONTROL
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he City of Minot obtained $82.5 million from the North Dakota Legislature in 2019 for flood protection work over the next two years. This is the largest appropriations for a water project in the state’s history.
SECURING LOST REVENUE
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he City requested a report from Ward County of delinquencies of payment of taxes for parcels in the Minot city limits for the last three years, and compared this to overall total to be collected going back three years. The collection of back taxes assists the Minot budget in keeping on track, and avoiding additional mill levy increases to make up for what is not being collected. The report found no significant issue with back taxes. Good news for the rest of the tax paying citizens. The Water Department also improved its methods to address delinquent accounts, including shutting off water until bills are paid a total of 1,452 times in the first 10 months of 2019. Unpaid utility bills represent lost revenue for the City and can impact water rates for the rest of the community.
40 years of excellence For the 40th consecutive year, the city of minot was awarded the Government Finance Officers Association Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting. the award recognizes individual governments that succeed in achieving transparency and full disclosure for public finances.
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