City Code (cont.)
The
council is responsible for the financial affairs of the city. The council must
provide for the collection and protection of revenues and other assets and the
auditing and settlement of accounts.
The
fiscal year of the city is the calendar year.
Subject
to the state constitution, and except as forbidden by it or law the council may
provide by ordinance for a system of local taxation. In the taxation of real and
personal property the council must conform as nearly as possible to law in the
assessment of property and the collection of taxes.
The
manager must prepare an annual budget and submit it to the council. The budget
must include all the funds of the city except funds consisting of the proceeds
of city bonds, utility funds and special assessment funds, but the budget may
include those funds at the discretion of the council. The estimated revenues and
expenditures for each fund must be shown for each department of the city. The
city manager must submit with the budget explanatory statements deemed
necessary. The budget must show comparative figures for the current fiscal year,
actual and estimated, and for the preceding fiscal year.
Subdivision
1. The budget is the
principal item of business at the first regular meeting of the council in
September and at subsequent meetings until the budget is adopted. Notice that
the budget will be considered by the council at the first meeting in September
must be published twice in the official newspaper with the second publication
not less than three days prior to the meeting. The notice must state that copies
of the proposed budget are available for public inspection in the office of the
city clerk and that the public will be heard at the meeting.
Subdivision
2. The consideration of
the budget and public hearing must be conducted so as to give citizens an
opportunity to be heard. The manager must review the budget in the detail
requested by the council. The adopted budget must set forth in detail the
financial plan of the city for the ensuing fiscal year. The sum appropriated by
the budget may not exceed the estimated revenues to fund the expenditures.
Subdivision
3. The council must by a
budget resolution adopt the budget no later than the first week of October.
Subdivision
4. The budget resolution
must levy sufficient taxes to provide adequate revenues for the budgeted
expenditures in the next ensuing fiscal year. The budget resolution must be
certified to the county auditor in accordance with law.
Subdivision
5. The sums fixed in the
budget resolution are appropriated for the purposes identified in the budget
resolution.
Subdivision
6. If a different schedule
and procedure for the adoption of the budget is specified by law, that schedule
and procedure must be followed.
The
manager must enforce the budget. The manager may not approve an expenditure
unless funds for that expenditure are appropriated by the budget. The manager
may not approve an expenditure authorized by the budget unless there is a
sufficient unexpended balance in the appropriation after deducting prior
expenditures from and current encumbrances against the appropriation. An officer
or employee of the city may not place an order or make a purchase for the city
unless the order or purchase is authorized in the budget. An obligation incurred
by an officer or employee for a purpose not authorized in the budget or for an
amount in excess of the amount appropriated in the budget is the personal
obligation of the person incurring the obligation.
The
council may not increase the amounts appropriated in the budget resolution
beyond the estimated revenues plus unappropriated fund balances, except to the
extent that actual receipts exceed the estimated revenues plus unappropriated
fund balances. The council may by resolution reduce an appropriation in the
budget. The council may by a vote of at least five members authorize the
transfer of sums from unencumbered appropriations in the budget to other
purposes.
The
council may include an emergency appropriation in the budget not exceeding ten
percent of the budget. A transfer from the emergency appropriation to another
appropriation may be made by resolution approved by a vote of at least five
members of the council. Amounts transferred from the emergency appropriation may
be used only for the emergency purposes designated by the council resolution.
Disbursements
of city funds are made by order-checks signed by the manager and chief financial
officer of the city specifying the fund on which the order-checks are drawn. An
order-check may not be issued unless the claim to which it relates has been
documented by an itemized bill, payroll, time sheet or other document approved
and signed by a responsible city officer who vouches for its correctness and
reasonableness. The manager must note on a contract requiring the payment of
city funds the particular fund from which the contract is to be paid. The
council may adopt further regulations for the safekeeping and disbursement of
city funds.
There
must be maintained in the city treasury a general fund and the funds required by
law, ordinance, the budget resolution or other resolution. The council may make
interfund loans except for trust or agency funds.
The
city manager is the chief accounting officer of the city. The manager must keep
the council informed of the financial status of the city. The manager must
provide for an annual audit of the city's finances by either the state auditor
or a firm of certified public accountants. A summary of the audit must be
published once in the official newspaper.
Except
as provided in section 7.13, obligations may not be issued to pay current
expenses, but the council may issue and sell obligations for any other municipal
purpose in accordance with law and within the limits prescribed by law.
At
any time after January 1st following the making of an annual tax levy, the
council may issue certificates of indebtedness in anticipation of the collection
of taxes levied for any fund and not yet collected. The total amount of
certificates issued against any fund for a fiscal year with interest thereon
until maturity may not exceed 90% of the total current taxes for the fund
uncollected at the time of issuance. The certificates (i) are issued on such
terms and conditions as the council determines, (ii) bear interest at no more
than the lawful rate, and (iii) are due and payable no later than the 1st day of
April of the year following their issuance. The proceeds of the tax levied for
the fund against which tax anticipation certificates are issued and the full
faith and credit of the city must be irrevocably pledged for the redemption of
the certificates in order of their issuance against the fund.
Subdivision
1. The council must
establish by resolution and maintain a [public] permanent improvement revolving
fund (PIR Fund) Into the PIR Fund are to be paid:
(i)
special assessments against benefited properties for local improvements
and the interest on those assessments levied and collected in accordance with
law;
(ii)
the proceeds of obligations sold to finance local improvements payable
from special assessments;
(iii)
proceeds of interfund loans or other appropriations to support the PIR
Fund; and
(iv)
payments from the city for the city's share of the cost of local
improvements.
Out
of the PIR Fund are to be paid:
(i)
the cost of local improvements financed by the PIR Fund;
(ii)
principal of and interest on obligations payable from special assessments
for local improvements financed by the PIR Fund;
(iii)
abatements of special assessments and refunds of payments made to the PIR
Fund in error;
(iv)
the repayment of interfund loans made to the PIR Fund; and
(v)
unencumbered surpluses in the PIR Fund as determined by council
resolution.
Subdivision
2. The council must
maintain the integrity of the PIR Fund by appropriations from the general fund.
The council must maintain a reasonable cash reserve in the PIR Fund for working
capital.
Subdivision
3. The council may issue
and sell general obligations of the city payable in whole or in part from
special assessments levied for local improvements paid for by the PIR Fund and
may pledge those special assessments to the payment of the obligations. The
obligations are not debt within the meaning of any statutory limitation on debt,
and no approval of the voters is required for their issuance. The aggregate
amount of obligations issued under this section outstanding at any time may not
exceed the sum of:
(i)
cash in the PIR Fund in excess of the required cash reserve, plus
(ii)
the total of special assessments for local improvements financed by the
PIR Fund that are levied but uncollected; and
(iii)
the assessable cost of local improvement work in progress.
Subdivision
4. On the completion of a
local improvement financed by the PIR Fund, the city manager must certify to the
council the total cost of the improvement. The cost of the improvement must then
be specially assessed against benefitted property in the manner provided by law.
Portions of the cost of the improvement determined by the council to be payable
from city funds (i) become due from those funds on the date of the adoption of
the assessment roll for the local improvement, (ii) bear interest at the same
rate as other special assessments for the local improvement, and (iii) must be
paid into the PIR Fund, with interest, not later than one year after the date of
the adoption of the assessment roll for the local improvement.
Subdivision
5. The council must by
resolution establish rules governing the administration of the PIR Fund to carry
out the intent of this section.
The
city may make a secured or unsecured loan to a business, a for-profit or
nonprofit organization or an individual as part of a program of economic
development, job creation, redevelopment or community revitalization, including,
but not limited to, loans for any economic development purpose specified by law.
The city may appropriate funds from any source, other than ad valorem taxes,
properly available to the city for the purposes of this section.
The
city council must, with the assistance of the city manager and the city planning
commission, prepare and adopt a complete plan for the future physical
development of the city. The plan may be altered from time to time. The plan may
include provisions for zoning, for the platting and development of new areas,
for the planning and location of public works of art, public buildings, parks,
playgrounds, harbors, bridges, transportation lines, and other public
facilities, and for the laying out, grading and improving of streets and public
places, as well as for all other matters deemed essential to the plan. The
adoption and enforcement of the plan must be accomplished in accordance with
law.
The
city may make any type of public improvement not forbidden by law and may levy
special assessments against benefitted property to pay all or a portion of the
cost of a local improvement in the manner prescribed by law. The special
assessments for a local improvement may equal the cost of the improvements but
may not exceed the special benefit to the property assessed.
In
addition to the provisions of law the council may provide by ordinance that the
cost of city services to streets, sidewalks or other public or private property
may be assessed against the property served and collected in the same manner as
special assessments.
The
city may acquire by purchase, gift, condemnation or otherwise, property within
or outside its boundaries that may be needed by the city for a public purpose.
In acquiring property by the power of eminent domain the city must proceed in
accordance with law.