By Kim Siebert MacPhail
To better track the balances and month-to-month ebb and flow of 14 different Town department “revolving funds,” the Finance Committee (FinCom) decided at its June 13 meeting to request more frequent revolving fund status reports from the Town’s Finance department. FinCom members also asked that two or three years of past revolving fund reports, plus cumulative deposit tallies, be made available to them so that they could have a better understanding of the rhythms of individual accounts over the course of several fiscal years.
A revolving fund is defined as an account that is established for a specific purpose into which funds to be used solely for that purpose are deposited and withdrawn. An example would be the Old Town Hall Revolving Fund into which rental fees are deposited and from which costs of operating the building are withdrawn.
Knowing that the various revolving funds have different high and low times of year—depending on when revenue comes in and when expenses go out—FinCom members Barbara Perry and Stephen Steele proposed that a narrative feature be included in the reporting that would describe how and why a fund historically fluctuates.
The question was raised about clarifying FinCom’s position with regard to the use of revolving funds. The consensus of the Committee was that members generally felt comfortable with the types of, reasons for, and oversight of the Town revolving funds. Director of Town Finance Victor Garofalo directly oversees the Town’s 14 revolving funds; David Coelho, Finance Director for the Schools, directly oversees additional School-based revolving funds.
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