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Financial Policies The guiding principles of the City’s budget development process are nancial and operational policies. These policies promote and ensure organizational continuity, consistency, transparency, and responsibility from year to year. This section identies some of the major short and long-term planning documents, nancial and operational policies, and scal management tools that the City of San Leandro employs in order to guarantee scal and programmatic integrity and to guide the development of the City’s Biennial Budget. Budget Control Policies Appropriations of scal resources are the responsibility of the City Council and City Manager. Appropriations requiring Council action include: Expenditures from reserves or designated fund balances. New appropriations, not approved in the adopted budget. Transfers between funds. Any contract included in the budget that will cost more than $50,000 shall be executed by the City Manager only upon approval of the City Council granted at one of the Council meetings. Appropriations requiring City Manager action include: Grant funds received during the scal year as a result of a grant application approved by the City Council are appropriated for the purposes for which the grant has been approved. Such appropriation includes authorization for the City Manager to expend such monies, and for the Finance Director to make payments in accordance with the terms and conditions and for the purposes of the grant. City Departments perform the following budgetary control functions: Review purchase transactions and payment requests for compliance with City regulations, rules, and budgetary limits. Administer the City’s payment system to review, process, and pay purchasing transactions and expense claims. Receive and deposit all City receipts, which are invested by the Finance Director. Maintain records for all these transactions and their effect on cash balances. Maintain a position control system, based on the budget to control stafng. Administer the City’s payroll system to process personnel transactions and to review and pay personnel expenses. Quarterly nancial reports on budget performance are reviewed by department managers and staff to identify budget problems and recommend corrective action. Legal control of the budget is at the fund level, while supervisory control is maintained at the department level. Grant funds are reviewed by project managers at the project level. All City purchase orders are centrally reviewed by Finance staff prior to issuance to determine if funds are budgeted and available. Adjustment to the Adopted Budget Policy Per the City Charter, Section 515, “After the conclusion of the public hearing, and not later than June 30, the Council by resolution shall adopt the budget with such revisions as it deems necessary. A copy of the adopted budget shall be available for inspection in the ofce of the City Clerk.” In order to accomplish the mandate, the City Manager presents a mid-year scal review to the City Council, typically held between January and March. This review includes needed adjustments to personnel and non-personnel budgets that have been identied by staff since the adoption of the budget, whether before or after the Mid-year Review, the City Council may amend or supplement the budget by motion adopted by the afrmative votes of at least ve members so as to authorize the transfer of unused balances appropriated for one purpose to another purpose or to appropriate available funds not included in the budget. The Biennial Budget, as adopted by the City Council, establishes the total appropriation provided for each City Department’s operations. To ensure that the expenditures of each Department do not exceed the departmental appropriation, expenditures for each Department are legally limited to the amounts authorized by the City Council in the budget document, plus carryover amounts and supplement appropriations individually approved by the City Council. The City Manager is legally authorized to transfer budgeted amounts between Departments within the same fund, and accounts within the same Department over the course of a scal year. Transfer of appropriations between funds and increased appropriations must be authorized by the City Council. Thus expenditures may not legally exceed budgeted appropriations at the Department level within a fund. City Council approval is also required for all transfers from unappropriated fund balances or contingency reserves. City of San Leandro | Proposed Biennial Budget FY24-25 Page 37