ARTICLE VII
CITY FINANCES

Section 7.1 Fiscal Year:

The fiscal year of the City of Gunnison, and all of its agencies, shall begin on the first day of January, and end on the thirty-first day of December of each year.

Section 7.2 Annual Budget:

The City Manager shall present a proposed budget for the ensuing fiscal year to the Council, together with a budget message, on or before October fifteenth of each year.

Section 7.3 Budget Hearings:

The Council shall hold a public hearing on the proposed budget on or before November fifteenth of each year. Notice of the time and place of such hearing shall be published at least once five days or more prior to such hearings, and a copy of the proposed budget shall be made available for inspection by the public, by depositing it in the office of the Director of Finance.

The Council may at any time before final adoption of the budget, increase, or decrease, add or strike out any item in it.

Section 7.4 Scope of Annual Budget:

The budget adopted by the Council shall contain:

A.    An estimate of the anticipated revenue of the city other than the tax levy for the ensuing year;

B.    An estimate of the General Fund cash surplus at the end of the current fiscal year, or of the deficit to be made up by appropriation;

C.    The estimated expenditures necessary for the operation of the several departments, offices, and agencies of the City;

D.    Debt service requirements for the ensuing fiscal year;

E.    The amount to be set aside for the public improvements fund, together with a schedule showing all recommended public improvement expenditures during the ensuing five years.

F.    An estimate of the sum required to be raised by the tax levy for the ensuing fiscal year, and the rate of levy necessary to produce such sum based on the percentage of current levy collection experience during the three preceding fiscal years;

G.    A balance between the total estimated expenditures, including any deficit to be met, and monies set aside for public improvements and total anticipated revenue, plus any surplus. All estimates shall be in detail showing revenues by source, and detailed expenditures by organizational units, activities, character and object.

Section 7.5 Adoption of Budget and Appropriations:

Not later than December fifteenth of each year, the Council shall adopt on final reading an ordinance for the budget and an ordinance of the annual appropriations. When finally adopted, the budget shall become a public record and sufficient copies shall be deposited with the Director of Finance to insure adequate circulation.

Section 7.6 Certification of Tax Levy:

Not later than December fifteenth of each year, or such other date required by law the Council shall fix the amount of tax levy which shall be assessed upon each dollar of assessed valuation of all taxable property within the corporate limits of the City of Gunnison, and shall cause the same to be certified to the Board of County Commissioners of the County of Gunnison as required by law. If the council should fail in any year to make such levy as above provided, the rate last fixed shall be the rate for the ensuing fiscal year, which rate shall be levied as by law provided.

Section 7.7 General Fund:

There is hereby established a fund to be known as the General Fund. All revenues not specifically allocated to any other fund shall be placed in the General Fund. All general functions of the City shall be financed by expenditures from the General Fund. The General Fund may contain an item for contingencies. Except in those cases where there is no logical account to which an expenditure can be charged, expenditure shall not be charged directly to contingencies, but instead, the necessary part of the appropriation for contingencies shall be transferred to the logical account and the expenditure charged to such account. No such transfer shall be made without the express approval of the Council, and then only for expenditures which could not be readily foreseen at the time the budget was adopted.

Section 7.8 Public Improvements Fund:

There is hereby established a fund to be known as the Public Improvements Fund for the purpose of paying the cost of capital improvements not specifically chargeable to other funds. The Council shall have the power to define the rules and regulations pertaining to such funds by ordinance, and shall have power to transfer from time to time monies from the General Fund to the Public Improvements Fund. Appropriations for construction or other permanent Improvements from the Public Improvements Fund shall not lapse until the purpose for which the appropriation was made shall have been accomplished or abandoned; unencumbered balances from projects accomplished or abandoned shall be deposited in any bond sinking fund wherein the faith and credit of the City was pledged, and the same used for payment of such outstanding bond indebtedness of the City, or if none, to any other fund. Any appropriated or unencumbered balance in the Public Improvements Fund may be transferred by the Council to any fund, or used to pay outstanding bonded indebtedness of the City.

Section 7.9 Special Funds:

Additional funds which shall be known as special funds shall be created by ordinance to provide for monies to be held or used for special purposes such as: depreciation and obsolescence, debt service, equipment and building replacement, special services, local improvements, city-owned utilities, trust funds and endowments, and such other purposes as the Council may determine.

Section 7.10 Transfer of Funds:

The City Manager may at any time transfer any unencumbered appropriation balance, or portion thereof, from one classification of expenditure to another within the same department, office, or agency. Report of any such transfer shall be made to the Council. The Council may, by resolution, transfer any unencumbered appropriation balance or portion thereof from one department, office, or agency to another. The Council may also by resolution, transfer any excess earnings of any City-owned utility to the General Fund of the City without establishing a liability for the same.

Section 7.11 Additional Appropriations:

The Council may make additional appropriations by ordinance during the fiscal year for unanticipated expenditures required of the City, but such additional appropriations shall not exceed the amount by which actual and anticipated revenues of the year are exceeding the revenues as estimated in the budget, unless the appropriations are necessary to relieve an emergency endangering the public health, peace or safety.

Section 7.12 Departmental Appropriations Revert:

Any annual departmental appropriation, or any portion thereof, remaining unexpended and unencumbered at the close of the fiscal year, shall revert to the respective fund.

Section 7.13 Expenditures Forbidden:

No expenditures shall be made for any charitable or benevolent purposes to any person, corporation, or organization not under the control of the City, nor to any denominational or sectarian institution or association.

Section 7.14 Audit of Accounts:

An independent audit shall be made annually of all financial affairs of the City, and more frequent audits may be made if deemed necessary by the Council. Such audits shall be made by certified public accountants, experienced in municipal accounting, selected by the Council.