April 24th, 2017 Council Meeting Notes: Langley City receives clean bill of financial health

Every year Langley City, like other municipalities in BC, must have an independent auditor go through our financial records. The independent auditor checks for evidence of fraud, that the City has proper financial controls in place, and that accounting legal requirements and best-practices are adhered to.

At Monday night’s council meeting, we received a presentation from BDO Canada, our independent auditor. They found no significant issues with the City’s financial statements.

With this information, later during Monday’s meeting, council approved the City’s 2016 Consolidated Financial Statements.

Langley City's updated Financial Plan reflecting actual year-end results. Select table to enlarge.

I wanted to outline some differences between the original 2016 Financial Plan, and the actual year-end results.

Langley City had an modest operating budget surplus in 2016. The City received significantly more revenue than budgeted from the casino. Due to an increase in development activities in the City, there was also a significant increase in revenue from fees and permits.

All department operations were under-budget expect for the fire department, recreation services, and development services.

The fire department was $309,145 over-budget. This was due to increased overtime due to sick leave, and major fires such as the Paddington Station apartment fire.

Due to the new Timms Community Centre, Recreation Services was over-budget by $202,615. The increase in costs for operating the new centre is reflected in the 2017 budget.

Due to an increase in hotel tax revenue flow-thru, the development services department appeared to be over-budget by $53,048.

One of the important indicators of a City’s financial heath is the value of its tangible capital assets such as roads, water lines, sewer mains, and buildings. In 2016, the City increased its total tangible capital asset value by $9.5 million dollars. Langley City now has $239.8 million worth of tangible capital assets.

As I posted about earlier this year, City council approve the 2017 Financial Plan which required a 3.61% taxation revenue increase. On Monday, City council approved the 2017 tax rates bylaw to enable the collection of property tax.

Every year, there is a difference between the 2016 Financial Plan budget and the actual results. Council must approve a bylaw to reflect these differences. On Monday, council passed a bylaw to amend the original 2016 Financial Plan to reflect actual year-end results.

Tomorrow, I will post about the remaining items covered at Monday night’s council meeting.