The fiscal year of the City shall begin on the first day of October and shall end on the 30th day of September of the next succeeding calendar year. Such fiscal year shall constitute the budget and accounting year.
The City Manager, or such other officer as may be designated by the Council, at least sixty (60) days prior to the beginning of each fiscal year shall submit to the Council a proposed budget and an explanatory budget message in the form and with the contents provided herein by Sections 11 and 12 [of this Article X]. For such date as he or she shall determine, he or she, or an officer designated by him or her, shall obtain from the head of each office, department, or agency, detailed by organization units and character and objects of expenditure, and such other supporting data as he or she may request. In preparing the budget, such officer shall review the estimates, shall hold hearing thereon, and may revise the estimates as he or she may deem advisable.
(Amended by electorate 4/7/84)
The budget and budget message and all support schedules shall be a public record in the office of the City Secretary open to public inspection. The Council shall cause sufficient copies of the budget and budget message to be prepared for distribution to interested persons.
At the meeting of the Council at which the budget and budget message are submitted, the Council shall determine the place and time of the public hearing on the budget and shall cause to be published a notice of the place and time not less than ten (10) nor more than thirty (30) days prior to the hearing in a newspaper of general circulation.
At the time and place so advertised or at any time and place at which such public hearing shall from time to time be adjourned, the Council shall hold a public hearing on the budget as submitted, to which all interested persons shall be given an opportunity to be heard, for or against the estimates or any items thereof.
The budget shall be adopted by the favorable vote of at least a majority of the Council.
Upon final adoption, the budget shall be in effect for the budget year. A copy of the budget as finally adopted shall be filed with the City Secretary and the County Clerk of Lee County. The final budget shall be printed, mimeographed, or otherwise reproduced and sufficient copies shall be made available for the use of all offices, departments, and agencies, and for the use of interested persons and civic organizations.
From the effective date of the budget, the several amounts stated therein as proposed expenditures shall be and become appropriated to the several objects and purposes therein named. The Council may from time to time amend the budget to provide for the appropriation of additional funds received by the City which were not taken into consideration in the original budget, or to remove funds from one section of the budget to another.
From the effective date of the budget, the amount stated therein as the amount to be raised by property tax shall constitute a determination of the amount of the levy for the purposes of the City in the corresponding tax year.
The budget message submitted to the Council shall be explanatory of the budget, shall contain an outline of the proposed financial policies of the City for the budget year and shall describe in connection therewith the important features of the budget plan. It shall set forth the reasons for salient changes from the previous year in expenditure and revenue items and shall explain any major changes in financial policy.
Attached to the budget message will be such supporting schedules, exhibits, and other explanatory materials in respect to both current operations and capital outlays as shall be useful to the Council.
An accounting procedure shall be devised and maintained for the City adequate to record in detail all transactions affecting the acquisition, custodianship, and disposition of anything of value, including cash receipts, credit transactions and disbursements and the recorded facts shall be presented periodically to officials and to the public in such summaries and analytical schedules in detailed support thereof as shall be necessary to show the full effects of such transactions for each fiscal year upon the finances of the City and in relation to each office, department, or agency of the City government including distinct summaries and schedules for each public utility owned and operated.
The City Council shall cause a continuous audit of the books of account and of all records and transactions of the administration of affairs of the City, such audit to be made annually embracing each fiscal year and shall be made by a public accountant licensed by the State of Texas. The duty of the accountant shall include the certification of all statements required by Section 13 herein [of this Article X]; such statements shall include a general balance sheet showing summaries of income and expenditures and also comparisons, in proper classifications, with the last previous audit. The audit shall be filed in the office of the city secretary within 180 days after the last day of the fiscal year, pursuant to Texas Local Government Code ch. 103. No auditing firm shall be retained for a period of more than five (5) years.
(Amended by Ordinance 823 at an election held on May 15, 2017, ex. B, sec. VII)
At the beginning of the fiscal year, the City Council shall designate a financial institution in the City as the City depository which shall be selected for a period of five (5) years. The City Council shall have the right to reject any or all bids offered as City depository. The financial institution selected as such depository shall give adequate bond. The bids shall be reviewed by current auditor, Director of Finance, City Manager, and Financial Advisor with a written recommendation to the City Council.
If the Council rejects the bid or bids offered by the financial institution in the City, the City Council may seek bids from financial institutions outside of the City.
(Amended by Ordinance 663 at an election held on May 12, 2012, prop. 8; Amended by Ordinance 823 at an election held on May 15, 2017, ex. B, sec. VIII)
If by October 1, the City Council has failed to adopt a new budget, then the City shall operate under the prior year’s budget.