# Council Budget & Finance Committee - August 30, 2011 > Auto-transcribed civic record · August 30, 2011 - **Permalink**: https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/meeting/2152 - **Source video**: https://lfucg.granicus.com/player/clip/2152?view_id=14&redirect=true - **Date**: 2011-08-30 - **Last revised**: July 17, 2026 - **Length**: 3,609 words > ⚠️ **Auto-generated content.** Audio from the official Granicus video was auto-transcribed with OpenAI's open-source Whisper large-v3-turbo model, run locally by The Lexington Times. Structured facts were extracted with GPT-4o; the narrative summary was written by Anthropic Claude. Verbatim wording may contain errors. See [methodology](https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/about/methodology) or [report a correction](mailto:editor@lexingtonky.news). --- ## Meeting Overview The Budget & Finance Committee met on August 30, 2011, at 1:00 p.m. The committee addressed five agenda items, all of which were informational in nature. During the meeting, the committee heard one motion and received four public comments. The agenda included a Monthly Budget Report, a time table discussion for the FY 11 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR), a review of the FY 10 Management Letter, brainstorming on budget process ideas, and consideration of items referred to the committee. No votes were recorded during this meeting. ## Attendance The following individuals were present at the meeting on August 30, 2011: * Ellinger * Lane * Gorton * Kay * Farmer * Myers * Beard * Lawless * Blues No absences or late arrivals were recorded. ## Votes and Decisions The Budget & Finance Committee held one vote during this meeting. **Motion to Adjourn** Mr. Schoeniger moved to adjourn the Budget & Finance Committee meeting. The motion passed by voice vote [timestamp: 0:42:43]. The following members voted in favor of adjournment: - Ellinger - Lane - Gorton - Kay - Farmer - Myers - Beard - Lawless - Blues No members voted against the motion. ## Public Comment Four speakers addressed the council during the public comment period, raising concerns about financial reporting timelines, budget processes, and fund management practices. **Mr. Lane** [timestamp: 0:24:26] expressed concern about delays in receiving audited financial statements from component units. He noted that the Lexington Airport's audit was delayed due to ongoing construction activities. Mr. Lane emphasized the importance of engaging auditors earlier in the process to improve the timing of financial report delivery. **Council Member Kay** [timestamp: 0:26:33] questioned the mismatch between budget report formats and the certified audit (CAFR). He suggested that aligning these formats would enhance comparability and facilitate trend analysis across financial documents. **Council Member Beard** [timestamp: 0:33:58] inquired about how fund balances from external agencies are managed at year-end. Specifically, he asked whether these balances roll over to the following year or are reserved in rainy-day funds. **Dr. Cain** [timestamp: 0:35:04] advocated for improvements to the budget process, calling for a more thoughtful and proactive approach. Dr. Cain recommended earlier engagement with departments, including a dedicated priority-setting session and better coordination of analytical information across all departments to support more informed decision-making. ## Contested Items **Timing of CAFR and Audited Fund Balance** Council members engaged in a heated discussion regarding the delayed timeline for receiving audited financial statements. The primary concern centered on the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) and audited fund balance arriving too late to meaningfully inform budget decisions. Council members expressed frustration with this schedule and called for the process to be accelerated to November to better support their budgeting work. In response, the administration acknowledged the challenge posed by the current timeline and committed to proactive coordination with component units to improve the delivery schedule going forward. **Format Mismatch Between Budget and Audit Reports** A split vote emerged over whether the CAFR format should be restructured to mirror the budget format for improved comparability between the two documents. Some council members advocated for aligning the formats to make it easier to cross-reference budget projections with audit results. However, the administration explained that accounting standards requirements necessitate the current CAFR format and prevent the alignment that council members sought. This disagreement reflected differing priorities between those prioritizing practical usability and those bound by regulatory compliance standards. ## Monthly Budget Report (1-11) The committee reviewed the monthly budget report during this agenda item. [timestamp: 0:14:30] **Key Speakers** Mr. Lane and Council Member Kay led the discussion on this presentation. **Discussion and Concerns** The committee's review focused on several timing and procedural matters related to the budget and financial reporting: * **Final Audited Fund Balance and CAFR**: The committee discussed the timing of when the final audited fund balance and Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) would be available. * **Delays from Component Units**: Concerns were raised about delays in receiving financial information from component units, which was impacting the overall timeline for completing the audit and financial reporting process. * **Accelerated Audit Timeline**: There was a desire expressed by the committee to move the audit timeline forward to November, presumably to expedite the completion of financial reporting. **Outcome** This agenda item was classified as informational in nature, indicating that the primary purpose was to present information to the committee rather than to make a decision or take formal action. ## Time Table for FY 11 CAFR (9-10) The committee discussed the timeline for completing the Fiscal Year 11 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) [timestamp: 00:19:56]. **Key Participants** Mr. Lane and Dr. Cain led the discussion on the CAFR completion schedule. **Discussion Points** The committee addressed concerns about the current schedule for delivering the FY 11 CAFR. A primary goal identified was to deliver the final audited fund balance by December. The administration indicated that draft financials could be available in November, which would support the timeline for completing the final audited report by the December deadline. **Outcome** This item was presented for informational purposes, with no formal action taken. The discussion established the expected timeline for CAFR completion, with November identified as the target month for draft financials and December as the target for the final audited fund balance. ## FY 10 Management Letter Discussion (12-21) The committee reviewed the FY 10 management letter during this agenda item [timestamp: 00:29:26]. Mr. Schoeniger led the discussion. The committee conducted a review of the FY 10 management letter without proceeding through a line-by-line examination. Members expressed general agreement with the contents presented. No significant concerns were raised during the discussion, and the committee moved forward without requiring further action on this item. The outcome was informational in nature. ## Budget Process Brainstorming Ideas [timestamp: 00:30:01] The committee engaged in an open dialogue focused on improving the budget process. Key participants in this discussion included Mr. Schoeniger, Dr. Cain, Council Member Kay, and Council Member Beard. The committee explored several areas for potential improvement: **Earlier Engagement and Information Sharing** The group discussed the need for earlier engagement with the administration during the budget cycle and emphasized the importance of better information sharing throughout the process. **LINCS Process Reconfiguration** A significant suggestion involved reconfiguring the LINCS process to be used year-round, rather than limiting its application to a specific period within the budget cycle. **Standardized Reporting Formats** The committee identified standardized reporting formats as a tool that could enhance consistency and clarity in budget documentation and presentations. **Revenue Forecasts** Participants recommended implementing earlier revenue forecasts to allow for more advance planning and better-informed budget decisions. This discussion was informational in nature, with the committee gathering ideas and perspectives on how to streamline and improve various aspects of the budget development and approval process. The suggestions reflected a focus on enhancing communication, extending planning horizons, and creating more consistent documentation practices across the budget cycle. ## Items Referred to Committee (22) [timestamp: 0:41:37] Mr. Schoeniger provided updates on referred items during this informational segment of the meeting. The discussion covered five main areas: - Board of Architecture review - Catering definition - Economic Continuity Ordinance - Solid waste task force - Procurement task force No action was taken on any of the referred items during this portion of the meeting. The updates were presented for informational purposes only, allowing the body to remain apprised of the status of items previously referred to committee. Following Mr. Schoeniger's updates, the committee moved to adjourn. --- ## Decisions - **Motion** — passed: Motion to adjourn the Budget & Finance Committee meeting --- ## Full transcript Thank you. as well as the section of the parts of the building in that section. One thing that the position is set up for is that they are active in the council, what we can accomplish again, and as the council comes back on the council. And however, we request our agency to be a part of our campus. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. When I arrived, the cap was not complete. That was the case where it was one of the major issues. It was not complete with that cap was that no cap. The actuary is not complete. The actuary for us that help insurance is not complete. Actuary for us that help insurance is not complete. The actuary for us that help insurance is not complete. Thank you. There are some major and non-major component units, so we'll get you an entire list if that would be helpful. Okay. Can you just give me an idea about the criteria for including? How do they get to be in that pile? Is it because they have boards appointed by this body? Right, and they have their financials externally audited. and they just send us the completed audit for them. But to answer your question, there's a whole checklist to determine whether they are included in your financials or not, and that's a standard checklist that we can, again, provide for you. But it does have to do with who appoints the board, et cetera. Okay, that's helpful. Thank you. I wonder when exactly, you didn't exactly mention it in here, but when do you expect our audited fund balance? Well, which is a little bit different from the CAFR, but I thought I'd ask. Again, it wouldn't be final until we had a completed CAFR, but we could have our draft financials in November. So that would be a draft. After the technical review? You need to speak into that. After the technical review? Okay. I know that you kind of came in in the middle of things last year, and I appreciate that you've moved this up. I wonder, in the 1999 through 2002 administration, and again in the 2003 through 2006 administration, we had our final fund balance, I think, almost every year by November. And I wonder if it's possible to keep moving up each year. And I wonder also, why do we not engage our audit? Why do we not have the mid-August date as a July date? And why can we not? Can we move things up so that we can get a final audited fund balance earlier? Not this year, but next year. Well, our goal is to have it completed prior to our December date. So our goal is to have it completed sooner. I would comment that in terms of engaging artwork, we obviously have to close. So there are certain this year a couple of weeks. So we are being proactive in that regard. Again, our goal is to have it. We will get it to you by December. I am hopeful that we will get it to you prior to that. I'm talking about the completed CAFR, so therefore the numbers. the audited fund balance. I think that would be a really good thing and a really helpful thing because of some of the things that the Council put in the current budget to start in January. And I think it will be really helpful if we can have a good sense of where we are before then. And I'm hopeful that as you continue your good work that maybe we can keep moving that up so that we can get it each year in November. I think that would be a good thing for Council to see and also for the administration to see. I think Phyllis would certainly agree with you in terms of getting that information sooner and better information to you. Okay, very good. Thank you very much. Mr. Lane? Well, I did want to add that one of the challenges is for the audited statements to get back to us from these component units. They engage their auditors in the same time frame, and they are challenged to get it to us to be incorporated into the CAFR. And I have had proactive discussions with Don Severs from the Lexington Airport regarding earlier receipt of those financials. So we are going to try to keep moving forward. Okay. I think that's a good thing. I know Council Member Stennett and I both sit on the Lexington Center Board, and they actually engaged their external auditor. Their auditor is already finished on site, and we expect their report next month. Now, I know they're a smaller entity, but they're one of our partners. outside agencies. So I think if they can do it, the others surely ought to be able to do it too. And I might just add, Council Member Kay, the other three that I didn't mention in addition to those is the Department of Health, the Fayette County Department of Health, the Airport Board, and the Lexington Center Corporation. Those are the other three besides the ones I mentioned. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Mr. Lane. Yeah, I have a question for you. I do. I'm on the airport board, and I thought this is a good example of some of the problems that may come up, but there was a great deal of construction underway at the airport, and so some of the work was in progress, and so determining which portion was completed and what balance remained took a lot more effort to compile that information, and so I know that that was one of the delays that the airport board had coming out, but I don't believe you're going to see that issue this year. That was sort of a unique situation. My question, and I think we discussed this once before, but one thing that's always bothered me is that our budgets and our financial reports are in a different format than the certified audit we get at the end of each year, and it's very difficult sometimes to compare the appropriations and the budgets and all that with the audited report. Is there any possibility that our report format could be modified to mirror our budgets better so that we could do some comparisons at the end of the year when the certified report comes in? or is the format that's currently being used in the CAFRA required in order to get our certification for the certified audit? You want to answer the CAFRA question and then Brian will answer a bunch of them. We design our statements based on accounting requirements. So I'm not sure how they prepare, but that's how the financial statements are prepared. I think in terms of consolidating reports, I agree it's something I'd love to see. In the management report, you'll notice that they comment that the PeopleSoft module for reporting, the easiest way to standardize that is to have produced reports out of the system. Unfortunately, we do not. It's manual. So it's a group of manual employees and a group of manual employees putting those together. And I particularly find the county reports kind of confusing. So to migrate to that on cash flow reporting from a budgeting basis, it is very difficult to marry the two when it's done manually versus the automated reports. Now, we've had discussions on their testing some automated reports, but we do have a long uphill battle to get some of those things in place to accomplish that task. Well, I'm really asked that because when you look at historical budgets and then you look at store altitude reports, the numbers don't jive necessarily. And so it's hard to look at trends. What I normally would do when I'm working on numbers is rely on the certified audit because the format of that is consistent. But I was just questioning whether at any time in the future that the CAFRA could be a mirror of our budget and financial statements. And so, you know, we could see if the numbers we were reporting were, you know, pretty close to the audited report. Yeah. I think some of the categorization is different as well, which makes it a little more challenging. Thank you. That's all I have. Any other questions on this item? And the last one on the agenda was the budget process brainstorming ideas. And Mr. Schoeniger and I put this on. Did you want to go through the management letter, or did the council want to go through it line by line, or do we all feel good with that? Seeing nothing on that, I think we'll move forward to the fourth item, which is the brainstorming idea. And Mr. Schonger and I put this together along with the administration, and we want to kind of open this up for the council to talk about ideas, how we can get the council and the administration kind of on the same page and be proactive when we start putting the budget together and not wait until February, March, or April when it is starting to be put together. And there's issues that we talk about with the links process, how we want to go about doing that, issues that came up last year in the budget that dealt with the pools that were going to be closed in the fiscal year, and then we're looking at budgets for the following year and fee increases and budget priorities. So at this point, I'll open it up to council members if they have suggestions. And what I looked at doing is make this part as ideas, and then for the September meeting we'd actually look at concrete ways that we could engage the administration more in budging. And if there are some suggestions, I think the administration also was going to look at some ideas that they could bring to us here. So at this point, I'll open it up for council members if there's some discussion about how we can make the budget process more inclusive and work on it at the front end. And seeing none, then we'll move forward to the last item. But is there any ideas at the Council? And if they're not having any presently, then we can have an e-mail to either my office or I'll show Mr. Schoeniger's here, and we can bring those to the September meeting. So does the Council have any suggestions on how we can do this at this point? because this is just going to be kind of an open dialogue here of what we should be doing and what we can be doing to try to make this process better. And I don't know, Commissioner, if there's some ideas that you want to throw out there too that we can add to the budget process to make it more a work together so we don't do like we did this past time and be more proactive here in our budget priorities and work together with the administration. I think we can fine-tune your all's wishes on the prioritization setting model and help maybe support that, however form you'd like that to take. There were two just in terms of observations that in talking to budget and working through this process the first time myself, is the sharing of information or the requesting of information and maybe how we can better facilitate that when information is needed from agencies. You know, we weren't always aware of information. You know, we think we can help get that information to you in a more timely fashion or in the format that would be more helpful to you, analysis of attendance in swimming pools as an example or, you know, information like that. that where information change and maybe we can help somehow put a process in place where we can better coordinate particularly analytical information, and not from a control perspective, but just from making sure we're keeping up with all the information that you need. And I guess the second one, just from trying to, again, keep up and provide you better information in terms of the link schedules, if there was any way to not overlap those meetings so that, you know, the budget director, for example, myself, we could really have a better overall view of all the committees as they do their work. I mean, those were just two kind of immediate things, and I'm sure that we have lots more and would love to, you know, participate. And I think that's what this discussion is here, kind of open dialogue just on ways that we can make the process better and we can try to look towards the September meeting, try to bring these ideas together, and have some concrete solutions come then. I think we have some questions from Council Members. Mr. Beard? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Commissioner? Yes, sir. This is a little bit off the point, but it ties in to an extent. The agencies that Councilmember Kay asked you about, are they all on the same year as we are? Yes. They are. Do they, if they have a fund balance at the end of the year, what happens with that money? Is it just going to pot and roll it over into the next year for funding games, or does they have a rainy day fund someplace? I would have to get to you. I don't have all that information, but individually, you know, the boards oversee the financial integrity of those funds. So right off the cuff, I'd have to look at what each one does in terms of if they have policies regarding ending fund balances, et cetera. Okay. I'm just curious because they have some of the same fluctuations that we have, and then they have their own problems sometimes too. And very different sources of funds, some of them. Exactly. Thank you, Commissioner. Thank you, Chair. Dr. Cain. Thank you, Chair. A couple of comments. people have been asking me about in general how things are going and often they ask about the budget process and I've been saying repeatedly that both the council and the administration are committed to a schedule that allows for a more thoughtful conversation about the issues that will be before us. Some people have already commented about the specifics of that in my mind And that's crucial. And I've been saying this is a new administration. They started on January 1. It's understandable that we had a compressed calendar, but now it's not a new administration. And so more than anything else, I'm hoping that the whole calendar can be looked at. The priority-setting session that we had before the budget was actually submitted to Council, I think that was useful, but it could have been more useful had there been more time for interaction. So I would like to see something like that included in the process. The question of getting information in a more timely fashion, I think that's a good idea. As much as possible, we need to implement that. And then a thought about the links schedule. My understanding is that the administration has a mandated responsibility to get the budget to council by whatever that date is. There's a date certain, is that correct? Yes. And typically we have not started the LINCS process until we have that budget. One thought, may or may not be popular with other people on council, is that as we get ready to receive that, it may be possible to have links begin to have their meetings to look at the larger issues that they might be facing. Are we getting calendar information? I did. I just wanted to have it to look at the particulars from this year. our mayor's budget hearings fall prior to Link's hearings. So, I mean, there were a lot of shifting in terms of preparation and when we actually start the process. But we certainly can look at the time issues. You know, our time is compressed. Our goal is, and we've talked about this, and I should have mentioned it, It's one of the things that, again, preliminary work is on the capital planning side of things. The goal is to get you all the capital project side. Obviously, we haven't had a lot of money to fund those recently, but how that dovetails with all this, too. So there are a lot of pieces that are important to consider in terms of those times. And we're at a compressed time frame to get information to you and get through that budget process. And then your all's length of time is, you know, longer than from the time we finish budget hearings to the time the mayor is presenting the budget. So we need to consider all of that in terms of schedules and when we have good financial information by which to base decisions or proposals to you. So I think you need to look at all those key components. Okay, that's helpful. I have one additional comment, and that is I know that there's a difficulty in any organization, including this government, in presenting information that is not yet solid. And I know in financial forecasting that's especially true. When you say something might happen, people read that as that's what's going to happen. Nonetheless, go ahead. I was just going to say the key, I mean, revenue forecast. In order to provide you all the best revenue forecast, which obviously provides us the outline for all the budget pieces to fit into, we try to give you the best forecast as well. Now, our modeling with Dr. Trotsky hopefully should help move that forward, but still there is value to the most recent or as late as we can push that real revenue, actual revenue information as we move forward. So that's a really important piece of the puzzle. Okay. I was just going to conclude that remark by saying that I'll just speak for myself. I have a bias for fuzzy information as long as it's labeled that way rather than no information. So this is maybe a timely metaphor with this hurricane, but if you're at the top of the building and you see these clouds forming, you don't want to scare us about a storm. But if you don't tell us the clouds are coming and then it starts to rain and the wind is howling, we wonder how come we didn't know. So even though there's a risk of being slightly inaccurate or wrong or presenting fuzzy information, I have a preference for getting what you know. appropriately characterized so that we can think about it in the same way that you are thinking about it. So thank you. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. That was the old former Vice Mayor Mike Scanlon, who was the mushroom, keep us in the dark all the time. And yours is much more uplifting there. I think the issue that we need to decide is also how we want to use the links process. And we talked about trying to use that year-round, and we end up doing it towards the end of the budget process. And we tried to reconfigure our committees to the links. And I think what we need to do, if we could in the interim, is decide with the committee how we want to go about that to set this up to use it year-round. Is there any other issues at this point about number four? Moving on then, items referred to committee. Mr. Schoeniger, could you tell us where we stand on all these, please? Thank you, Chair. The first item, the board, free structure. Historic preservation is looking at some other comparative communities on there. The Board of Architecture review free structure, and they should be back to us sometime this fall. The catering definition issue presented by Councilman Crosby, Planning is ready, and as soon as it can be scheduled, I think planning is ready for that discussion. I think it would really be up to Council Member Crosby, her availability. The Economic Continuity Ordinance from Council Member Farmer, he's asked me for information. I'd be honest with you. I dropped the ball and haven't gotten back to him. So I can do that relatively soon. The other items are really being looked at by other entities, I believe. The solid waste issue put in by Council Member Gordon, actually from Council Member Stenet through Gordon. I think the solid waste task force is looking at that item or those items. And then the local vendor preference, the minority women business recruitment issue, and then the purchasing process, I believe they're all being looked at by your procurement task force or your purchasing task force. I don't know the name of it. the procurement task force, and we've actually sent that to the auditors to give our final decision, and they're supposed to be giving us an opinion back so then we can be presenting this to the full council. So is there any action that needs to be taken from the committee? If not, I will take a motion to adjourn. So moved. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed, we are adjourned. Thank you. Thank you.