Department Summary
The Finance Department
serves the City Manager and the
City Council
as a service and reporting operation. Finance does not take
a position on any policy. Finance gathers and presents the facts as thoroughly
and exactly as possible to the City Manager, to allow informed decisions
to be made by management and the Council. Finance then supports the decisions
fully.
By directive of State Law,
the City is required to provide a myriad of financial accounting and control
functions. This responsibility rests with the Finance Department.
Due to the importance of
proper stewardship of the citizens’ public money, the State also requires
cities to have an outside accounting firm audit the finance operation on
an annual basis. This audit is ordered by the
City Council
and the audit is presented by the auditors to the
City Council
in a series of documents, along with any notes of concern.
The auditors assure that
the City is doing the accounting according to "Generally Accepted Accounting
Policies" (GAAP). These policies include many double checks on operational
and accounting processes.
In addition, we are required
to complete an annual State Controller’s Report with detailed financial
data and a Comprehensive Annual Financial Report. The State also audits
our Measure A Fund annually.
RESPONSIBILITIES
