Page 19 - Fort Worth City Budget 2019

Executive Message

The FY2019 Adopted Budget is the product of prioritizing expenditures with available revenues while balancing
the burden to the taxpayers and looks at the city’s financial health for not only the upcoming year, but well into
the future. In order to ensure the city focuses on citywide challenges and opportunities, the budget process
continues to move from department specific actions to a broader, organizationally focused decision-making
process. These philosophies and processes shift our focus from a narrow operational view towards a forward-
looking strategic view.

The local Fort Worth economy continues to grow along with the greater Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area;
however, the growing demands on the city’s limited financial resources while minimizing taxpayer burden
continue to set the stage in which the city must operate.

OVERVIEW

The FY2019 Adopted Budget totals slightly over $1.9 billion and consists of 19 different operating departments
(excluding Non-Departmental) plus four appointed officials offices across multiple funds, including the General
Fund, Special Revenue Funds, Debt Service Funds, Enterprise Funds and Internal Service Funds. Of the total
budget, 38 percent, or $731 million, reflects the cost of General Fund activities such as public safety, parks,
neighborhood services, economic development, property management, transportation and public works,
planning and development, public libraries and general management of the city. The remaining 62 percent, or
$1.18 billion, will fund the operations of the other funds, including Special Revenue Funds, Debt Service Funds,
Enterprise Funds and Internal Service Funds.

The citywide budget also includes 7,645 approved positions (AP) or 7,173.1 full-time equivalent (FTE) positions,
which is a net increase of 81.3 FTE (84 positions) from the FY2018 Budget. The new positions outlined below were
offset by the decrease of seven positions in the Municipal Court Department:
• Public Safety – 18
• Water – 21
• Capital Delivery – 12
• Planning and Development – 13
• Park & Recreation – 8
• Parking – 6
• Public Events – 5
• Economic Development – 3
• Risk Management – 2
• Neighborhood Services – 1
• Property Management – 2
The numbers above do not include positions that transferred between departments or funds, as these have a net
effect of zero to the City overall.

BUDGET DEVELOPMENT PROCESS
The FY2019 budget process began in January of 2018 when city executive staff reviewed the upcoming seven-year
projection. February of 2018 brought the City Council retreat and an effort to align City Council goals with city
executive staff guiding principles. On March 30, the Performance and Budget Department hosted a citywide
Budget Kickoff to mark the formal beginning of the budget development process. The meeting brought together
the executive team, department heads, Budget and Analysis division staff and departmental fiscal coordinators to
discuss the overall strategy for developing the FY2019 budget. City staff set out to prepare the FY2019 Budget by
relying on the following budget development strategies:
• Increase funding for capital investment

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