Travis County Commissioners Court
Tuesday, September 13, 2011 (Agenda)
Item 19
19, discuss recommended fiscal year 2012 budget rules.
>> good afternoon.
I'm going over the memo you should have received.
we're not asking any action be taken today.
we wanted to get the budget rules before you.
what we've traditionally done for the last few years and I think has worked well is post it one week, have a discussion, gather any questions that you may have, give all the departments an opportunity to thoroughly review them and then we will be requesting action next Tuesday from the court to approve those because we then take them and file them with the proposed budget.
so the memo from p.b.o.
to you outlines the changes.
we have tried to make -- every year we try to improve, and I worked with donna, shawn, jose, and barbara wilson who helped me tremendously on the budget rules.
we're moving to a new financial system and I believe the go live date is in April, right in the middle of our fiscal year.
we'ring about to start with the hte system and end with the new financial system.
so these budget rules will need to bridge this year and they are -- our intent was to be flexible enough to do that.
a new rule was created, number 3, which stayed the budget control is authorized at the office department level and the budget is managed at the level supported by the automated financial system.
on April 26 we brought forward to you the intent of -- I've got it here actually -- discuss and consider changes to expenditure bunch he will control efforts under the new financial system and we explained at that time that right now we have many, many, many countless hte line items at very particular levels.
and the new system is going to allow us to manage it a little bit greater level there.
so basically -- and I'm just going to read because I think they summarized it well, the auditor's office.
the county currently adopts its budget at the departmental level but manages at the individual line item level supported by hte and the new financial software provides the ability to budget at higher level and gain significant efficiency while maintaining appropriate visibility and control of expenditures.
basically what this means is the departments will actually have the ability to put in a purchase order and a line item that the 3001, which is office supplies, if that line item is budgeted at $100 and they need to do a purchase order for $125, it will actually look at the -- I think the level is 3,000 and if you have enough money in another one of those line items it will let you go forward.
it's just a more efficient business practice, if you will.
it will not do that in certain circumstances as outlined in the budget rules, mainly personnel.
so I just wanted to highlight that because it is a significant change and I know there's a lot of training and discussions going on, but I wanted to bring it out publicly again.
one change also under sap, we will -- the county plans to use the actual united states general services administrative -- administration gsa per diem rates only for meals and that allows departments, and they can obviously establish a lower rate for departments or offices, but what that allows is regional differences.
obviously going to new york city is a different environment than going to san antonio, perhaps.
we've also added additional language for the county auditor to automatically liquidate outstanding encumbrances for purchase orders which all items have been received, injoysed and full expenditure provided to the provider.
we're currently in the process working with the auditor's office and with departments to clean up old encumbrances as well as we move to the new system.
we did send that language to a love larger departments and everybody was on board and I would say actually excited because we've had some problems in the past of closing out some of those encumbrances.
the next page increase flexibility on personnel transfers including temporary salaries, overtime and unusual circumstances or situations and advertising for vacant slots for departments that advertise positions independently from hrmd.
although this provides greater flexibility to the departments, I want to note p.b.o.
has always had the liberty to take any adjustment we think you need to see or we have questions or concerns about to court t next bullet, acknowledgement that tcso's overtime budget has a special reserve in the f.y.
12 budget.
we discussed that during budget markup last week.
also increased flexibility for food and beverage purchases for emergency and public safety deployments.
this was some additional flexibility that the sheriff's office wanted added that we agreed with.
it allows for food purchases for special situations where an employee is prohibited from leaving an assigned location during a meal break.
with the recent wildfires, you can know that was probably an occurrence last week.
>> and the law sanctions that.
>> my understanding is yes, the auditor's office has reviewed it.
I will double ask the question.
and get back to you if there is any problems.
>> I feel a little uneasy when I ask a question like that and the lawyers frown.
>> the law allows -- it is an awkward phrasing because what really is relevant there is not so much whether it's allowed but whether the meal provided becomes a tax -- a taxable benefit for the employee.
so that it gets a little complicated.
>> we will review it again this week and let you know next Tuesday if there is any issues.
>> don't make me withdraw the question, miss wilson.
>> I didn't.
I meant to clarify that that didn't signify that it wasn't allowable.
it only signified it wasn't a short, easy answer.
>> okay.
>> is next bullet,
>> [indiscernible] have been consolidated and moved to append ix 3.
under the resources page.
but they are located in the
>> [indiscernible] as far as the actual procedures.
that departments need and that they are familiar with that they've seen in the past.
the grant appendix has also been updated and generally all we've done there is just made it ease of use and to make sure it reflects the actual practices in place right now and also to ease transition into the sap financial system.
the reimburse the rate for business mileage has been updated to the current 55 1/2 cents and 14 cents per mile for volunteers.
I don't believe that number has changed for several years.
obviously these rates are subject to change by the i.r.s.
and we just update what we know at the time.
the other thing that we've updated is other append ices such as the budget authority responsibility that has most current information available to date.
and also we would ask that offices and departments consult with their budget analyst if they have questions on that.
one last thing we did delete the brief guide to performance measurement not because we didn't think it's important, but we didn't think it was appropriate to have it in the budget rules.
we think it's more appropriate for the budget manual and also I put a location on here if departments want to use that as a resource at any time.
>> it's difficult to find on the website.
>> the performance measure or the budget rules?
>> the actual -- the document, the brief guide to performance measurement.
>> okay.
I'll give you that link.
>> it's sufficiently important that we think we should make it easier to find.
>> we'll do that.
>> one thing that I have noticed over the -- the time on the court is even in our grant proposals, which you would expect to have fairy fairy rigorous criteria measure we usually -- we have no out come to speak of with the sterling exception of the juvenile department.
juvenile does a tremendous job at loading up performance measure that aren't even being asked of them by their their grantors but -- true performance measures providing efficiency and out come.
>> we'll work to make sure there's a link that's more prominently displayed.
the other thing that I would like to bring up then, those are the main changes to the budget rules and I am happy to answer any other questions.
there's two other things I would like to bring up.
one is there's been some emails back and forth regarding the chapter 22, the code.
and previously the budget rules, I believe back in the day, in the 1990s, they were actually in the code in the code format.
currently with the budget order what happens is we repealed last year's budget rules and we just basically say replace them with this year's budget rules.
we're not post to do discuss the code so I'm not going to get into that, but for informational purposes I wanted to note to you that currently you have three options that we'll probably have to bring back to court at some point on whether they should be included this the code or not.
and then if they should be in the code format, which I would not recommend because I don't believe personally that any department accesses them in that format.
I believe they access them through the internet or the intranet or their p.b.o.
analyst.
>> we do have still a committee that is working on cleaning our code and up loading it.
we might punt it to them with regard to the --
>> I have had discussion with lisa and I think back later in the fall we'll probably come back with cleanup issues related to that.
but I think for the time being I don't think it needs to be mixed in with the discussion on approving the budget rules as required for the proposed budget or the budget order.
>> that's great that y'all are talking.
that's all I was hoping for.
>> and the last item I wanted to say is we'll get back with you then obviously on the two issues that we brought up today, one being the review of the emergency public safety personnel, if they are not able to leave their post if the department can internally purchase meals for them, and the other one on the link for the guide on the performance measures.
there are also just two other minor changes that I have already received and would like to clean up and one is under grants on page 34.
literally change ago word from on to about.
and then the other one is under the appendix 6, the county awed author has authority to record -- in accordance with comprehensive basis of accounting consistent with state law.
minor changes but I wanted to make them public since they are not in the document before you.
I'm happy to answer questions and I will repost for next week.
>> questions?
so bring it back next week.
>> we'll be back next week for approval.
>> for appropriate consideration, mr. Nellis.
>> that's right.
>> thank you.
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