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The city may have less money from oil and gas well revenue than is recorded in financial records — but officials aren’t sure how much.
“We feel very comfortable with the $240 million in revenue, and we absolutely concur with the statement that there is about $54 million sitting in the trust. What we have yet to fully reconcile is the appropriation column and the remaining balance column,” Aaron Bovos, the city’s chief financial officer, said Tuesday in a presentation to the City Council.
“There are some absolute discrepancies as we stand today with those two columns. I think the reality with where we sit is we have spent more than what is showing on the report,” Bovos said, adding the remaining balance is “much less than we are showing on the report.”
Mayor Betsy Price said she doesn’t think there was any fraud intended, but the city needs to get it “straight.”
As an example of the discrepancies found in the city’s oil and gas well spending — which follows complex federal, state and local regulations and is divvied up into several accounts including parks, water, transportation and public works, aviation and a general trust fund — Bovos pointed to a 2008 decision to use $15 million in oil and gas well revenue from the transportation fund to fix roads.
Despite that $15 million expenditure, the transportation fund is showing only $7.1 million in revenue over the life of the fund and is showing a remaining balance of $7.3 million.
Bovos called it “another great example of a reconciliation that needs to be done.”
“We have a tremendous amount of work to do on our side,” said Bovos, who was named chief financial officer in December 2013.
Bovos said getting the books fixed is just a matter of getting the numbers in the city’s general ledger to match up with the quarterly oil and gas revenue reports.
No money is missing, he said, but getting the reports accurate will help the council plan for upcoming capital projects.
Councilman Sal Espino called for Bovos and his team to get the books right, so the council can make decisions about using the oil and gas revenue for upcoming capital projects. He also asked the council to look at how that revenue can be used.
“In addition to streets, we have requests for sidewalks, trails, improvements in parks, and obviously we have more needs than revenue,” Espino said.
Throughout the life of all five funds (which are further separated into 21 subgroups), the city’s oil and gas revenue has brought in $240 million. The city set up its financial policies governing gas well revenues in 2005.
City reports say the city has spent $132 million of that on various capital projects, but that is the number Bovos thinks is inaccurate.
“We feel very comfortable with the $240 million in revenue, and we absolutely concur with the statement that there is about $54 million sitting in the trust. What we have yet to fully reconcile is the appropriation column and the remaining balance column,” Aaron Bovos, the city’s chief financial officer, said Tuesday in a presentation to the City Council.
“There are some absolute discrepancies as we stand today with those two columns. I think the reality with where we sit is we have spent more than what is showing on the report,” Bovos said, adding the remaining balance is “much less than we are showing on the report.”
Mayor Betsy Price said she doesn’t think there was any fraud intended, but the city needs to get it “straight.”
As an example of the discrepancies found in the city’s oil and gas well spending — which follows complex federal, state and local regulations and is divvied up into several accounts including parks, water, transportation and public works, aviation and a general trust fund — Bovos pointed to a 2008 decision to use $15 million in oil and gas well revenue from the transportation fund to fix roads.
Despite that $15 million expenditure, the transportation fund is showing only $7.1 million in revenue over the life of the fund and is showing a remaining balance of $7.3 million.
Bovos called it “another great example of a reconciliation that needs to be done.”
“We have a tremendous amount of work to do on our side,” said Bovos, who was named chief financial officer in December 2013.
Bovos said getting the books fixed is just a matter of getting the numbers in the city’s general ledger to match up with the quarterly oil and gas revenue reports.
No money is missing, he said, but getting the reports accurate will help the council plan for upcoming capital projects.
Councilman Sal Espino called for Bovos and his team to get the books right, so the council can make decisions about using the oil and gas revenue for upcoming capital projects. He also asked the council to look at how that revenue can be used.
“In addition to streets, we have requests for sidewalks, trails, improvements in parks, and obviously we have more needs than revenue,” Espino said.
Throughout the life of all five funds (which are further separated into 21 subgroups), the city’s oil and gas revenue has brought in $240 million. The city set up its financial policies governing gas well revenues in 2005.
City reports say the city has spent $132 million of that on various capital projects, but that is the number Bovos thinks is inaccurate.
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