OBJECTIVES & PRIORITIES
FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT IMAGES
Mission: The Financial Program Element includes tracking all stormwater expenditures and providing an annual report that details the expenditures in several funds and in a number of categories for each fund. According to the Stormwater Rate Study completed in 2012 by StepWise Utility Advisors, the three funds used by stormwater are the following:
Operating Fund- accounts for the revenue earned from normal operation, including the user charges and all of the operating expenditures. Includes: Ops Compliance (Storm); Storm Administration; Department Wide (Storm); Customer Billing (Storm); Plans Review (Storm); WW Ops Admin (Storm); Storm Drainage; Clean H2O Program (Storm); CIP Admin (Storm); AW Ops Admin (Storm); Business Service Admin (Storm); AW Service (Storm); Technical Ops (Storm); Household Chem Roundup.
System Improvement Fund- accounts for capital expenditures and development fee income with the normal renewal and replacement of the existing stormwater assets. Includes: Capital projects are listed individually; Levee Certification; Storm Drain System Improvement; Structural Rehab; Stormwater Management Plan; Infrastructure Upgrade/Mod.
Development Fund- accounts for the capital expenditures and development fee income for stormwater system expansions. Includes: Plant Investment Fees (Development Fees).
The Financial Management Program Element also includes managing user fee income from the utility’s combined billing process and assessing the user fee to new properties as they come into the system from engineering.
2013 Aurora Flood Report, Courtesy of Aurora Water
Assessment Needs for Stormwater Assets, Courtesy of URS and Aurora Water
Stormwater Compliance 2012 Annual Report, Courtesy of Aurora Water
3 - 3
<
>
FINANCIAL MGMT PROGRAM ELEMENT GAPS
To access the full Gap Analysis Technical Memo, please click here. Gaps identified in Phase I and Phase II for the Financial Management Program are listed below.
FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT PATH FORWARD:
• Implement a system of consistent budgeting and tracking.
• Ensure that expenditures (maintenance and administration) and adequately broken-down and defined such that they are defensible.
• Implement a complete rate study to determine adequacy of revenues and rate options to provide for current and future needs.
• Investigate the benefits of impervious area based rate structures and the tools/systems/changes required to implement such a change. Note: refer to the tech memo titled: Impervious Area Based Rate Structure Options.
• Evaluate a more frequent evaluation timeline for development impact fees to address new projects and changes in the construction cost price index.
• Define a program for lifecycle costing of asset management and operations and maintenance.
• Evaluate options for billing and accounting systems that will "talk" to one another or remedy this flaw in existing systems.
• Evaluate a system for customer and billing data that will interface with INFOR.
• Incorporate Annexation, Developer, and Intergovernmental Agreements into electronic systems.
• Complete an audit of existing UDFCD master plans and non-master plan projects to complete Project Cut Sheets and CIP Prioritization model.
• Complete preliminary budgetary level condition assessments and budgets for all asset types.
• Define a defensible approach to asset management funding and budget projections that accounts for operation and maintenance, asset life cycle, flood repair, replacement, etc.
• Complete preliminary projections of expenditures for remaining Program Elements.
• Coordinate projects that result from conditions assessments with all parts of the program.
• Establish a process for defining whether projects are funded by CIP funds, Maintenance funds, or Asset Management funds.
DELIVERABLES
FINANCIAL MGMT FUNCTION MATRIX & PROGRAM ELEMENT DETAILS
Identifies functions, responsible parties, gaps, and overlaps in the Financial Management Program Element.
Investigates Aurora's stormwater rate and fee structure in relationship to other municipal structures.
