Page 380 - Fort Worth City Budget 2019

General and Debt Service

Funds Reserve Policy

I. Authority:

The Fort Worth City Council is responsible for legislation, policy formulation, and
overall direction setting of the government. This includes the approval of financial
policies which establish and direct the operations of the City of Fort Worth. The City
Manager and Assistant City Managers are responsible for carrying out the policy
directives of the City Council and managing the day-to-day operations of the executive
departments, including the Department of Financial Management Services. This
policy shall be administered on behalf of the City Manager and the Assistant City
Managers by the Chief Financial Officer/Director of Finance.

II. Purpose:

The City desires to maintain a prudent level of financial resources to guard its
stakeholders against service disruption in the event of unexpected temporary revenue
shortfalls or unpredicted one-time expenditures / expenses. In addition, this policy
is intended to document the appropriate Reserve level to protect the City’s credit
worthiness and provide adequate cash flow based upon the traditional operating
cycle. Reserves are accumulated and maintained to provide stability and flexibility to
respond to unexpected adversity and/or opportunities and to minimize the costs
associated with short-term cash borrowing.

This policy establishes the amounts the City will strive to maintain in its General
Fund and Debt Service Funds Reserves, how the Reserves will be funded, and the
conditions under which the Reserves may be used.

III. Applicability and Scope:

This policy shall apply to the General Fund, the General Debt Service Fund, and all
other governmental and proprietary Debt Service Funds under the budgetary and
fiscal control of the City Manager and the City Council.

This policy is applicable to governmental and proprietary funds, and is intended to
supplement, not supersede, provisions of the City governing the issuance of bonds or
other obligations secured in whole or in part by revenues held in or credited to a
governmental or proprietary Fund.

IV. Glossary - See definitions related to this policy provided in the appendix.

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