2008 Finance Department Objectives with Accomplishments

Finance Services

Improve customer service by providing options for business tax reporting and payment and utility account status and payment on the City's website. (Council Goal 1)
Not completed due to staffing limitations; Continues as a 2009 Objective.
Implement a new "real-time" cash receipting system that will integrate fully with key financial applications. (Council Goal 1)
Not completed due to staffing limitations; Continues as a 2009 Objective.
Analyze current procedures for printing and mailing utility bills and notices and recommend improvements. (Council Goal 1)
Analysis has been completed. Costs to implement changes have not been budgeted.
Continue review of departments' cash handling procedures and develop written procedures for each site and a cash handling manual with training for all current and new cash handlers in the City. (Council Goal 1)
Review of various city departmental cash handling procedures was completed. Where warranted, revised procedures were drafted and approved. Additional Accomplishment: Developed and attained certification for Treasury Policy and Procedure Manual.

Review City's accounting treatment of pensions and Other Post Employment Benefit in light of new Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) accounting pronouncements and actuarial standards. (Council Goal 1)
Actuarial work was completed; all notes in the 2007 financial report reflect adoption of GASB standards.
Integrate current Finance efforts to create citywide capital project reporting summary with Budget Capital Project Tracking. (Council Goal 1)
Not completed. Effort was not started due to staffing changes within each department. This Objective has been carried forward into the 2009 objectives.
Work with the new City Disaster Preparedness Manager to fully integrate the Accounting Departments' support of City emergency response efforts. (Council Goal 11)
Completed. The Finance Director and others on staff participated in an array of EMS training. The Director also participated in citywide analysis of EMS structures and assisted with the development of Administrative disaster response procedures.
Complete financial analysis of annexation requests. (Council Goals 1 and 5)
Completed.

Coordinate Library Bond issue if approved by voters. (Council Goal 6)
Finance built a summary financial plan for a new library and presented the information to council. Council concluded that this should not be presented to the voters at this time.
Complete waterfront development financing plan for infrastructure identified in Development Agreement with Port of Bellingham. (Council Goal 4)
Partially completed. Analysis and review to calibrate the assumptions used by the City with those of the Port of Bellingham was completed. The next step which was to build an integrated business plan for both parties was postponed due to disagreement regarding the direction of the development.
Develop Fire Fleet financing plan. (Council Goal 1)
Completed. A separate inter-fund loan was put into place to fund the upgrading of a significant portion of the fire fleet.