Page 10 - City of Arlington FY19 Adopted Operating Budget

Manager’s Message

COUNCIL PRIORITIES
Each year, the City Council identifies community priorities that guide us in allocating the City’s resources. There was a slight
change to the Council’s adopted priorities for FY 2019 – Council expanded its focus on Supporting Quality Education to include
all Youth and Families. The FY 2019 priorities are:

The $255.3 million FY 2019 Adopted General Fund Budget and Business Plan will make strides toward these priorities as well
as other key issues facing the City, including:

1) Compensation Adjustments – With this budget, we continue to make a conscious effort to adjust salaries
across the workforce to improve our market position. A 2.5% to 5.7% compensation adjustment will be given to
employees depending on their job classification effective February 2019.
2) Public Safety – Approximately $2.1 million in additional funding is being dedicated to Public Safety enhancements.
 9-1-1 PBX Enhancements ($100,000)
 Police Unified Digital Video System ($610,600)
 13 New Police Positions ($1,012,634)
o School Resources Officer Expansion (3 Police Officers and 1 Police Sergeant)
o 3 Police Officers (2015 COPS Grant Completion)
o 2 Police Officers (City Hall/Plaza Security)
o 4 Civilian Investigators
 Increase Staffing for Fire Station 17 ($247,597)
 2015 COPS Grant Completion ($748,160)
 Fire Heavy Fleet Replacement ($655,708)
 Fire Utility Adjustments ($51,785)

FY 2019 BUDGET DEVELOPMENT

The City of Arlington prepares its annual operating budget using sound fiscal principles and policies. We budget conservatively
and ensure that our reserves are funded at appropriate levels, as defined by our adopted Financial Policies. Specifically, the
requirements are one month (8.33%) of recurring General Fund expenditures in the Working Capital reserve, 3% in the
Unallocated reserve, and an overall reserve level of 15%. With our additional reserves for landfill and business continuity, our
current level of reserves is approximately $51.6 million, which is $13.7 million in excess of our required level of $37.9 million.

Expenditures
The budget was built with the Council identified priorities as our primary guidance for resource allocation.

2019 Adopted Budget and Business Plan v City of Arlington, Texas