August-September 2015 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Postal Customer ECR-WSS PRST STD U.S. Postage Paid St. Paul, MN Permit #1962 I n s i d e Arden Hills, MN . 55112-5734 Single sort recycling update Arden Oaks Park Lindey’s State of the City meetings planned News from the Mayor It seems like only a few months ago the commercials were advertising the Oscars, Academy, Webby, Tony, and other awards. In city government, the finance awards are based on budget cre- ation, accuracy, and transparency. These awards are judged and awarded by the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA), which represents public finance officials throughout the United States and Canada. The GFOA’s mission is to enhance and promote the professional management of governmental financial resources by identifying, developing, and advancing fis- cal strategies, policies, and practices for the public benefit. The GFOA has established several highly regarded professional recognition pro- grams to encourage and assist state and local governments to improve the qual- ity of their financial management and to recognize their achievement. I am pleased to announce that again this year the City of Arden Hills won all three awards. We are one of only three cities in the state to receive all three awards for 2014. Receiving these awards is important because it demonstrates that an outside agency regards our budgeting as effective and publishing of the information as trans- parent to those who want to understand how our funds are spent. Also, winning these awards is a positive step in the city maintaining its AA+ bond rating. While there is such a thing as an AAA rating, it is not generally available to a city of our size. The three awards that we won are: Certificate of Achievement for Excel- lence in Financial Reporting Program (CAFR Program) The GFOA established the Certificate of Achievement for Excel- lence in Financial Reporting Program (CAFR Program) to encourage and assist state and local governments to go beyond the minimum requirements of generally accepted accounting principles to prepare comprehensive annual financial reports that evidence the spirit of transparency and full disclosure, and then to recognize individual governments that succeed in achieving that goal. The goal of the program is not to assess the financial health of participat- ing governments, but rather to ensure that users of their financial statements have the information they need to do so themselves. Popular Annual Financial Reporting Award Program (PAFR Program) The GFOA established the Popular An- nual Financial Reporting Awards Program (PAFR Program) to encourage and assist state and local governments to extract in- formation from their comprehensive annual financial report to produce high quality popular annual financial reports specifi- cally designed to be readily accessible and easily understandable to the general public and other interested parties without a background in public finance and then to recognize individual governments that are successful in achieving that goal. Distinguished Budget Presentation Award Program (Budget Awards Program) The GFOA established the Distinguished Budget Presentation Awards Program (Budget Awards Program) to encourage and assist state and local gov- ernments to prepare budget documents of the very highest quality that reflect both the guidelines established by the National Advisory Council on State and Local Bud- geting and the GFOA’s best practices on budgeting, and then to recognize individual governments that succeed in achieving that goal. The criteria require that they be easily understandable to the general public and other interested parties without a back- ground in public finance and clearly show the issues the government entity is dealing with, its policies, the budget process, op- portunities for public input, and facts about the entity itself. It serves as a policy docu- ment, a financial plan, an operations guide, and a communications device. Congratulations to the Arden Hills Finance Department. Regards, David Grant Mayor And the winner is...