City Honored For Financial Accounting Practices 5th Year In A Row

Kirkwood, Missouri – Thursday, April 5, 2007 – For the fifth year in a row, the City of Kirkwood’s Finance Department has received the highest honor in financial reporting in the area of governmental accounting and financial reporting. Attaining the “Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting” represents a significant accomplishment by a government and its management. The award is presented by the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA). The award was presented to the city by Finance Director John Adams at the City Council meeting held on April 5, 2007.

“This award is significant to Kirkwood,” stated Mike Brown, the city’s Chief Administrative Officer. “It demonstrates the city is a good steward of the city’s money. At the same time, it doesn’t negate the fact that we continue to face significant challenges in the ability to continue to provide basic city services.” Brown was referencing the fiscal problems currently facing the city’s main operating fund, the General Fund, which pays for all the basic day-to-day operations of the city. In recent years, sales taxes and electric revenues, the two main funding sources for general operations, have had increasing pressures placed upon them. The city sales tax revenues have been flat for the past five years, even with new commercial development. And rate reductions to residential electric rates over the past few years have caused a cumulative revenue loss of more than $1.5 million in electric revenues.

Kirkwood’s Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) has been judged by an impartial panel to meet the high standards of the program including the demonstration of a constructive “spirit of full disclosure” to clearly communicate its financial story and motivate potential users and user groups to read the CAFR. Kirkwood’s CAFR’s for the past three fiscal years are available for viewing on the city’s website, www.ci.kirkwood.mo.us, by visiting the Finance Department’s homepage under “City Services.”

The GFOA is a nonprofit professional association serving approximately 15,000 government finance professional with offices in Chicago and Washington, D.C.

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