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Killeen’s donation funds are well-managed, however may use some promotion, in line with a latest audit by Metropolis Auditor Matthew Grady.
The audit targeted on a number of areas, together with verification of donation accounts, a assessment of revenues and expenditures for Fiscal Years 2017 via 2021, figuring out the appropriateness of expenditures, and figuring out alternatives for finest follow enhancements, a Friday information launch mentioned.
The audit discovered that the donations reviewed had been correctly recorded and used for his or her meant functions.
“Nevertheless,” the report mentioned, “the Metropolis’s efforts to focus on donor exercise via the usage of social media, in accordance with finest practices had been considerably combined, with some actions promoted and others not.”
For instance, the report finds that the Senior Citizen Utility Invoice Help Program takes in roughly $11,000 in donations yearly and pays out a median of $5,700 yearly in help funds. Because the program’s inception, it has taken in $200,000 and constructed up a 12-year reserve, primarily based on common annual funds.
“Whereas sustaining a reserve is a prudent finest follow, a 12-year reserve could also be extreme, and should point out a possibility to amend program coverage to extend help funds,” the report mentioned.
The report factors out that residents have seen three further will increase to their water charges, in addition to the implementation of the Road Upkeep Price in 2018 and a subsequent $8.30 enhance of that very same charge to $10 in 2021.
“Altogether, these will increase have amounted to a further 30 % rise within the month-to-month utility invoice,” the report mentioned.
Social media
The report means that some departments, such because the Killeen Police Division, combine its donation program promoting with Killeen’s Communications Division to create a unified platform on the town’s major Fb web page. Thus far, KPD has drawn in $14,057 in 2021. In distinction, the report discovered that Recreation Companies drew in $30,143 in 2021, whereas Killeen Hearth Division has obtained simply $60 since its donation fund was created in 2017.
“The explanation for the dearth of donor exercise shouldn’t be clear. Nevertheless, given the sturdy help the Hearth Division enjoys within the Killeen neighborhood, it’s probably that would-be donors are merely not conscious of the fund’s existence,” the report mentioned, including that Hearth Chief James Kubinski is “conscious of this difficulty and is presently working to develop doable donor-funded packages and actions that would profit the Hearth Division and the neighborhood.”
The report additionally notes that Killeen Animal Companies has “dramatically improved its coordination with the Communications Division” in recent times and now takes in $15,000 yearly. Based on the report, the division has been accumulating money to make use of for bodily enhancements to the situation.
Lacking Fountain
The report additionally targeted on a fountain undertaking commissioned twenty years in the past, nevertheless, the fountain was by no means constructed. Based on the report, architectural designs for a fountain to be put in alongside the Killeen Civic and Convention Heart had been offered in February of 2002. Nevertheless, the function was denied development as a consequence of a preliminary value estimate of roughly $168,000. The fountain design returned in 2007 for the 125th Anniversary celebration, and this time was superior far sufficient to obtain some $45,000 in donations throughout two accounts.
The report notes that whereas the town is technically below no obligation to observe via with the fountain undertaking, it now being greater than 15 years superior, “there’s at a minimal an expectation that one thing will likely be accomplished.”
Based on the report, the town has three major choices, that are to let the funds stay untouched of their respective accounts for perpetuity, to repurpose the funds for an additional undertaking, or to finish the fountain undertaking.
“Since returning the funds shouldn’t be an choice at this level, given the passage of time and the dearth of donor information, administration ought to take into account different doable choices going ahead,” the report mentioned, including that neither of the previous choices “are more likely to be palatable choices for the donors who contributed to the fountain fund-raising marketing campaign.”
Grady acknowledged within the report that he reached out to the Parks and Recreation Division of Kansas Metropolis, Missouri, for an estimate on annual upkeep prices. Based on the report, the Kansas Metropolis Parks and Recreation Division supplied an annual upkeep value estimate of $27,600 for the same sized fountain, which didn’t embody the price of repairs.
“Whichever path ahead the Metropolis chooses, it ought to be with a watch in the direction of honoring the intent of the unique fundraising marketing campaign,” the report mentioned.
Ultimately, Grady really helpful three programs of motion for the town’s government director of finance, that are to develop a proposal for rising month-to-month help ranges for the Senior Citizen Utility Invoice Help Program, to coordinate with the communications division to advertise Senior Citizen Utility Invoice Help Program donor exercise on social media, and to discover a answer to the presently inactive Particular Occasion Heart Fountain Fund.
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