Fort Walton Beach — Comprehensive Financial Report September 30, 2017 — reading text

Approximately 86.4% of this amount, or $14.9 million, is available for spending at the discretion of City Council.  At the end of this fiscal year, committed, assigned, and unassigned fund balance of the General Fund was $12.1 million, or 63.2% of the total General Fund expenditures.  The City of Fort Walton Beach’s total debt decreased by $1.8 million, or 5.0%, during the fiscal year. This decrease is proportional to scheduled principal payments. OVERVIEW OF THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS This discussion and analysis intends to serve as an introduction to the City of Fort Walton Beach’s basic financial statements, which are comprised of three components: 1) government-wide financial statements, 2) fund financial statements, and 3) notes to the financial statements. This report also contains other supplementary information in addition to the basic financial statements themselves. The focus of financial statements prepared in accordance with the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) Statement 34 is on both the City as a whole (government-wide) and on major individual funds. Both perspectives (government-wide and major funds) allow the user to address relevant questions, broaden a basis for comparison (year-to-year or government-to- government), and enhance the City’s accountability. Government-Wide Financial Statements Designed to be corporate-like, the government-wide financial statements consolidate governmental and business-type activities into two columns, which sum to a total for Primary Government. This provides readers with a broad overview of the City of Fort Walton Beach’s finances in a manner similar to a private-sector business. Two statements, the statement of net position and the statement of activities, are utilized to provide information on a government-wide basis. 4  The statement of net position presents information on all of the City of Fort Walton Beach’s assets, deferred outflows, liabilities, and deferred inflows, with the difference between them reported as net position. This statement combines and consolidates the governmental funds’ current financial resources (short-term available resources) with capital assets and long-term obligations. Over time, increases or decreases in net position may serve as a useful indicator of the financial position of the City of Fort Walton Beach. The statement of activities presents information showing how the government’s net position changed during the most recent fiscal year. All changes in net position are reported as soon as the underlying event giving rise to the change occurs, regardless of the timing of related cash flows. Thus, revenues and expenses are reported in this statement for some items that will only result in cash flow in future fiscal periods. Both of the government-wide financial statements distinguish functions of the City of Fort Walton Beach that are principally supported by taxes and intergovernmental revenues (governmental activities) from other functions that are intended to recover all or a significant portion of their costs through user fees and charges (business-type activities). The governmental activities of the City of Fort Walton Beach include general government (city clerk, city council, city manager, human resources, finance, purchasing, fleet maintenance, service maintenance, and non-departmental expenses), public safety (police, fire, building, and code enforcement services), physical environment (cemetery), transportation (engineering, streets, public works, and right-of-way), economic development (Community Development Block Grant Program, and community redevelopment agency), culture and recreation (parks, golf, library, and museum), and debt service interest. The business-type activities of the City of Fort Walton Beach include utilities (water, sewer, and storm water), and sanitation. The government-wide financial statements include not only the City of Fort Walton Beach itself (known as the primary government), but a component unit, the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA), which is a legally separate entity for which the City of Fort Walton Beach is financially accountable. The CRA is considered a blended component unit of the City of Fort Walton Beach, Florida and is presented as a special revenue fund as part of the primary government. The government-wide financial statements are found on pages 15-16 of this report. Fund Financial Statements A fund is a grouping of related accounts used to maintain control over resources that have been segregated for specific activities or objectives. The City of Fort Walton Beach, like other state and local governments, uses fund accounting to ensure and demonstrate compliance with finance- related legal requirements. All of the funds of the City of Fort Walton Beach can be divided into three categories: governmental funds, proprietary funds, and fiduciary funds. FUNDS Governmental Funds Governmental funds are used to account for essentially the same functions reported as governmental activities in the government-wide financial statements. However, unlike the government-wide financial statements, governmental fund financial statements are reported using an accounting method called modified accrual accounting, the focus of which is on near-term inflows and outflows of spendable resources, as well as on balances of spendable resources available at the end of the fiscal year. Such information may be useful in evaluating a government’s near-term financial requirements. The basic governmental fund financial statements are on pages 17-22 of this report. 5  Because the focus of governmental funds is narrower than that of the government-wide financial statements, it is useful to compare the information presented for governmental funds with similar information presented for governmental activities in the government-wide financial statements. By doing so, readers may better understand the long-term impact of the government’s near-term financing decisions. Both the governmental fund balance sheet and the governmental fund statement of revenues, expenditures, and changes in fund balance provide a reconciliation to facilitate this comparison between governmental funds and governmental activities. The City of Fort Walton Beach maintains eight individual governmental funds (General Fund, Community Redevelopment Agency Fund, Florida Building Code Fund, Law Enforcement Trust Fund, Law Enforcement Training Fund, Debt Service Fund, Community Development Block Grant Fund, and Beal Memorial Cemetery Perpetual Care Fund). Information is presented separately in the governmental fund balance sheet and in the governmental fund statement of revenues, expenditures, and changes in fund balance for the General Fund and the Community Redevelopment Agency Fund. Data from the other six governmental funds are combined into a single, aggregated presentation. Individual fund data for each of these non-major governmental funds is provided in the form of combining statements elsewhere in this report. The Community Redevelopment Agency Fund is considered a non-major fund for reporting purposes, however, the City chooses to present this Fund as a major fund in its financial statements. The City of Fort Walton Beach adopts an annual appropriated budget for its General Fund, as well as each of the other governmental funds. A budgetary comparison statement is provided for the General Fund on page 21 of this report. Proprietary Funds All proprietary funds of the City of Fort Walton Beach are maintained as enterprise funds. Enterprise funds are used to report the same functions presented as business-type activities in the statement of net position and the statement of activities. The City of Fort Walton Beach uses enterprise funds to account for its utilities operations (water operations and distribution, sewer collections and treatment, and stormwater management), and sanitation operations (garbage). Proprietary funds provide the same type of information as the government-wide financial statements, only in more detail. The proprietary fund financial statements provide separate information on utilities operations, sanitation operations, and stormwater operations, all of which are presented as major funds of the City of Fort Walton Beach although the Stormwater Fund could be considered a non-major fund for reporting purposes. The basic proprietary fund financial statements are found on pages 23-27 of this report. Fiduciary Funds Fiduciary funds are used to account for resources held for the benefit of parties outside the government. The City’s fiduciary funds include the Pension Trust Funds (general employees, police officers, and firefighters). Fiduciary funds are not reflected in the government-wide financial statements because the resources of those funds are not available to support the City of Fort Walton Beach’s own programs. The accounting used for fiduciary funds is much like that used for proprietary funds. The basic fiduciary fund financial statements are found on pages 28-29 of this report. NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS The notes to the financial statements provide additional information that is essential to the full understanding of the data provided in the government-wide and fund financial statements. The notes to the financial statements begin on page 30 of this report. 6 OTHER INFORMATION In addition to the basic financial statements and accompanying notes, this report also presents certain required supplementary information concerning the City of Fort Walton Beach’s progress in funding its obligation to provide pension benefits to its employees. The required supplementary information is found on pages 84-94 of this report. The combining statements referred to earlier in connection with non-major governmental immediately follow the required supplementary information on Pension funds and can be found beginning on page 95 of this report. GOVERNMENT-WIDE FINANCIAL ANALYSIS As noted earlier, net position may serve over time as a useful indicator of a government’s financial position. Assets and deferred outflows of resources of the City of Fort Walton Beach exceeded its liabilities and deferred inflows of resources by $54.2 million, as reported in Table 1. The government’s net position increased by $1.3 million for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2017. While governmental activities experienced a decrease, primarily related to changes in the net pension liability, business activities increased net position, attributable mainly to State Stormwater capital grants received. By far, the largest portion of the City’s net position, $41.2 million or 76.0%, reflects its investment in capital assets (e.g. land, infrastructure, buildings, machinery, and equipment) less any related debt still outstanding that was used to acquire those assets. The City uses these capital assets to provide services to citizens; consequently, these assets are not available for future spending. Although the City of Fort Walton Beach reports investment in its capital assets net of related debt, it should be noted that the resources needed to repay this debt must be provided from other sources, since capital assets themselves cannot be used to liquidate these liabilities. An additional portion of the City’s net position, 5.0%, represents resources that are subject to external restrictions on how they may be used. The remaining balance of $10.3 million is