FY 18 Annual Report

Fuel Equipment CITY OF SPENCER, IOWA

2018

Departmental Highlights

The City of Spencer owns and operates a central fueling facility that is used by city departments, Spencer Municipal Hospital and Spencer School District. The City sets aside money based on gallons of fuel used to build up funds for future repairs, improvements and replacement of the current system. This fund accounts for the revenue and any expenditures related to the fueling facility. In FY 18, a canopy was installed over the fueling island to offer projection some protection from the weather and to provide better lighting for fueling operations at night. The funding for this project came from the funds available in the fund.

Budget Review

Total expenditures for the department totaled $311,112.41 for FY 18, an increase of $237,047.64 (320.05% ) compared to FY 17. This increase in expenditures is highly deceptive as it is the result of change sin accounting practices. Prior to October 2017, any fuel used by the city departments was credited to the overall fuel purchase line item. This made tracking the actual costs of the fuel purchases hard and significantly lower than the actual expense. Since the City presents its financials on a cash basis, the transfer of funds from the operating departments to the Fuel Equipment fund should have been presented as revenue and not an offsetting expense. The large jump in revenue is also attributable to this change in accounting practices.

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