Southlake is 20 years strong in receiving the Distinguished Budget Presentation Award from the Government Finance Officers Association.
Recognized for its outstanding budget process from the GFOA ever since 1998, the city of Southlake recently received the Distinguished Budget Presentation Award for its annual budget starting on October 1, 2018. According to MySouthlakeNews.com, the GFOA is a nonprofit professional association that serves more than 20,000 government professionals throughout North America. Its distinguished budget guidelines are designed to assess how well a budget serves as a policy document, an operations guide, a financial plan and as a communications device.
“We work with the city council every year to create a strategic budget that advances the city’s comprehensive plan and supports Southlake’s services,” city manager Shana Yelverton says to MySouthlakeNews.com. “We are pleased that GFOA has recognized the City’s budget documents for more than 20 years.”
In previous years, the city’s budget received special recognition for utilizing and showcasing departmental performance metrics through strategically aligned scorecards, according to MySouthlakeNews.com. In 2017, all three reviewers of the city of Southlake’s budget rated the document as “outstanding,” with one judge noting that the document includes good performance information on the city's operational goals.
“Each department is accountable for yearly work plans and their corresponding budgets that meet the city’s strategic goals,” Chief Financial Officer Sharen Jackson says to MySouthlakeNews.com. “Those plans are then published in the budget document so taxpayers can review it for themselves.”
The city already started planning for the 2020 fiscal year in October 2018 and will file the budget document later in August. The Southlake city council will consider the new budget during their regularly scheduled meetings in September.