Fort Walton Beach — Comprehensive Annual Financial Report September 30, 2013 — reading text

survey of auto visitors by Visit Florida. Long-Term Financial Planning The City undertakes several processes to assist in future planning, such as:  A 5-year CIP (Capital Improvement Program) Plan is developed and approved by City Council each year during the annual budget process.  5-year replacement plans for capital equipment, including vehicles, machinery, and computer hardware and software, are also developed and approved by Management each year during the annual budget process Relevant Financial Policies The City has several financial policies that are utilized during daily operations, as well as during the budget and financial planning processes. The City utilizes fund balance reserves only for one- time non-recurring expenditures. In addition, the City maintains its fund balance level in the General Fund at 30% of fund expenditures – this policy helps to ensure that the City has sufficient funding in place for emergency and disaster relief. vii  Major Initiatives These indicators, as well as others, were taken into account when adopting the City’s budget for fiscal year 2014. The City’s total budget for fiscal year 2014 totals $34.7 million, which is $2.7 million higher than the fiscal year 2013 approved budget, due to efforts to return the City to financial stability and programmatic sustainability. The 2014 budget allocates $18.3 million, a 19.3% increase as compared to the fiscal year 2013 budget, to the General fund, $13.2 million to the Enterprise funds, and $3.2 million to other funds. For the fiscal year 2014 budget, the ad valorem rate increased to 5.7697 mills. A 3% increase in water and sewer rates is included in the budget; no other significant changes to the City’s various rate and fees are included in the fiscal year 2014 budget. AWARDS AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Awards The Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada (GFOA) awarded a Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting to the City of Fort Walton Beach for its Comprehensive Annual Financial Report for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2012. This was the twenty-seventh consecutive year that the City received this prestigious award. In order to be awarded a Certificate of Achievement, the City must publish an easily readable and efficiently organized Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, satisfying both GAAP and applicable legal requirements. A Certificate of Achievement is valid for a period of one year only. We believe our current report continues to meet the Certificate of Achievement Program requirements and we are submitting it to the GFOA to determine its eligibility for another certificate. In addition, the government also received the GFOA’s Distinguished Budget Presentation Award for its annual budget dated October 1, 2013. This was the eighteenth consecutive year that the City received this prestigious award. In order to qualify for the Distinguished Budget Presentation Award, the City’s budget document was judged proficient in several categories, including as a policy document, a financial plan, an operations guide, and a communications device. Acknowledgments The preparation of this report would not have been possible without the efficient and dedicated services of the entire staff of the Finance Department. We would like to express our appreciation to all members of the Department who assisted and contributed to the preparation of this report. We would also like to thank the Mayor and City Council for their unfailing support for maintaining the highest standards of professionalism in the management of the City of Fort Walton Beach’s finances and for their attention in conducting the financial operations of the City in a responsible and progressive manner. Appreciation is also expressed to the accounting firm of Warren Averett, LLC for their continued assistance and professionalism. Respectfully submitted, Michael D. Beedie, PE Brandy L. Ferris, CPA City Manager Finance Director viii (THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK.) ix (THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK.) x (THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK.) II. FINANCIAL SECTION  INDEPENDENT AUDITOR’S REPORT  MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS  BASIC FINANCIAL STATEMENTS GOVERNMENT-WIDE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FUND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS NOTES TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS  REQUIRED SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION  COMBINING AND INDIVIDUAL FUND STATEMENTS AND SCHEDULES Honorable Mayor and City Council Members City of Fort Walton Beach, Florida INDEPENDENT AUDITOR'S REPORT Report on the Financial Statements We have audited the accompanying financial statements of the governmental activities, the business-type activities, each major fund, and the aggregate remaining fund information of the City of Fort Walton Beach, Florida, as of and for the year ended September 30, 2013, and the related notes to the financial statements, which collectively comprise the City's basic financial statements, as listed in the table of contents. Management's Responsibility for the Financial Statements Management is responsible for the preparation and fair presentation of these financial statements in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America; this includes the design, implementation, and maintenance of internal control relevant to the preparation and fair presentation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error. Auditor’s Responsibility Our responsibility is to express opinions on these financial statements based on our audit. We conducted our audit in accordance with auditing standards generally accepted in the United States of America and the standards applicable to financial audits contained in Government Auditing Standards, issued by the Comptroller General of the United States. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free from material misstatement. An audit involves performing procedures to obtain audit evidence about the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. The procedures selected depend on the auditor’s judgment, including the assessment of the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to fraud or error. In making those risk assessments, the auditor considers internal control relevant to the entity’s preparation and fair presentation of the financial statements in order to design audit procedures that are appropriate in the circumstances, but not for the purpose of expressing an opinion on the effectiveness of the entity’s internal control. Accordingly, we express no such opinion. An audit also includes evaluating the appropriateness of accounting policies used and the reasonableness of significant accounting estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the financial statements. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our audit opinions. Opinions In our opinion, the financial statements referred to above present fairly, in all material respects, the respective financial position of the governmental activities, the business-type activities, each major fund, and the aggregate remaining fund information of the City of Fort Walton Beach, Florida, as of September 30, 2013, and the respective changes in financial position, and, where applicable, cash flows thereof, and the respective budgetary comparison for the General Fund and Community Redevelopment Agency (special revenue fund) for the year then ended in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America. 1 Honorable Mayor and City Council Members City of Fort Walton Beach, Florida Independent Auditor's Report (Continued) Other Matters Required Supplementary Information Accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America require that Management's Discussion and Analysis on pages 3-13, the Schedule of Funding Progress on page 76, the Schedule of Contributions from the Employer and Other Contributing Entities on page 77, and the Schedule of Other Post-Employment Obligations on page 78 be presented to supplement the basic financial statements. Such information, although not a part of the basic financial statements, is required by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board, who considers it to be an essential part of financial reporting for placing the basic financial statements in an appropriate operational, economic, or historical context. We have applied certain limited procedures to the required supplementary information in accordance with auditing standards generally accepted in the United States of America, which consisted of inquiries of management about the methods of preparing the information and comparing the information for consistency with management’s responses to our inquiries, the basic financial statements, and other knowledge we obtained during our audit of the basic financial statements. We do not express an opinion or provide any assurance on the information because the limited procedures do not provide us with sufficient evidence to express an opinion or provide any assurance. Other Information Our audit was conducted for the purpose of forming opinions on the financial statements that collectively comprise the City of Fort Walton Beach, Florida's basic financial statements. The introductory section, combining and individual non-major fund financial statements, and statistical section, as listed in the table of contents, are presented for purposes of additional analysis and are not a required part of the basic financial statements. The Schedule of Expenditures of State Financial Assistance is presented for purposes of additional analysis as required by Chapter 10.550, Rules of the Auditor General, and is also not a required part of the basic financial statements. The combining and individual non-major fund financial statements and the Schedule of Expenditures of State Financial Assistance are the responsibility of management and were derived from and relate directly to the underlying accounting and other records used to prepare the basic financial statements. Such information has been subjected to the auditing procedures applied in the audit of the basic financial statements and certain additional procedures, including comparing and reconciling such information directly to the underlying accounting and other records used to prepare the basic financial statements or to the basic financial statements themselves, and other additional procedures in accordance with auditing standards generally accepted in the United States of America. In our opinion, the combining and individual non-major fund financial statements and the Schedule of Expenditures of State Financial Assistance are fairly stated in all material respects in relation to the basic financial statements as a whole. The introductory and statistical sections have not been subjected to the auditing procedures applied in the audit of the basic financial statements and, accordingly, we do not express an opinion or provide any assurance on them. Other Reporting Required by Government Auditing Standards In accordance with Government Auditing Standards, we have also issued our report dated March 3, 2014, on our consideration of the City of Fort Walton Beach, Florida’s internal