Saturday, April 18, 2015

[San Bernardino County] City revises inter-fund policy


$35M internal debt still looms

VICTORVILLE — Nearly three years after the San Bernardino County Grand Jury ripped the city’s inter-fund borrowing to deal with serious cash flow issues, the City Council approved a revised policy meant to align with the grand jury’s recommendations.
“The purpose of this policy is to improve the accountability of cash being borrowed between funds intended for meeting cash flow needs for the City and all of its affiliated agencies,” stated the revised policy, adopted April 7.
It will supersede a policy adopted in May 2011, a little more than a year before the grand jury report was released.
The new guidelines, which are applicable for loans or advances greater than a year, require financial analyses, planning and monitoring to determine, among other things, a fund’s ability to pay obligations, while also creating repayment schedules and targeted payment amounts.
After establishing an inter-fund or inter-agency loan or advance, the city’s attorney will prepare a promissory note including the purpose for the loan or advance; identification of both the lending and borrowing fund(s); the loan or advance amount; the maturity date; the applicable interest rate; financial plan for repayment; and the borrowing fund’s right to make full repayment at any time without penalty.
The promissory note will then need to go before the City Council for approval.
During the Council meeting last Tuesday, City Manager Doug Robertson said the reason the policy hadn’t been revised until now was because “we were told by the City Council not to engage in any additional inter-fund borrowing, or any loans for that matter ...”
The grand jury report in June 2012 said the city’s cash flow issues had resulted in some $69.7 million in inter-fund borrowing and contended that the city had been slow to adopt a policy governing inter-fund loans, then ultimately adopted a flawed one.
The report also said the city for years had neglected to document much of the borrowing, resulting in financial statements that were misleading.
In March 2013, the City Council voted to use part of its $54 million court settlement with an engineering firm over the failed Foxborough power plant to pay off their internal debts in a move city officials lauded as a major step toward financial recovery.
Yet, one inter-fund loan remains — $35.58 million that the Victorville Water District in May 2009 advanced to the Wastewater Enterprise Fund “to cover certain design, construction management and construction related costs associated with the (Southern California Logistics Airport) Wastewater Treatment Facility,” according to a city staff report submitted last week by Robertson and Finance Manager Pat Rosenberg.
The Council last week approved extending the term of that loan through May 17, 2019. The water district intends within three years to find adequate financing to repay the loan, according to the city staff report.
April 12, 2015
Victorville Daily Press
By Shea Johnson, Staff Writer

No comments: