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In an effort to better prepare for catastrophes, whether natural or man-made, the City of Norfolk, Virginia, chose to add a chief resilience officer (CRO) to its staff. The goal of the position is to create a single resource within the organization to prepare the community for cataclysmic events like earthquakes and hurricanes, as well as addressing ongoing challenges like rising sea levels, drought, or poverty. It’s an idea that’s been adopted by a few other cities, including San Francisco, California.

In an effort to expand broadband connectivity statewide, the Commonwealth of Kentucky is in working out a partnership with a consortium of private firms to design and build a 3,200-mile fiber-optic system. The Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority, acting as a conduit issuer, sold $230.05 million of 30-year tax exempt bonds for the project in August 2015. Fitch assigned the issuance a rating of BBB+ and Moody’s Investors Service gave it a Baa2.

The Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) will offer an encore presentation of its 20th Annual Governmental GAAP Update live-streaming training event on

On November 3, 2015, the House Financial Services Committee approved HR 2209, bipartisan legislation that would require federal regulators to classify all investment grade municipal securities as high quality liquid assets (HQLA).

One of the changes the City of Minneapolis made after its 2013 mayoral election was adding a new strategic goal: creating a better connection to the community it served. To this end, the city increased its financial transparency, moving beyond the 500-page budget document it had published in PDF format to online tools that presented information in a clear, user-friendly way.

Governments have long focused on developing efficient procurement processes, and creating modern procurement systems that make use of technological advances create their own challenges. The City of Raleigh, North Carolina, was grappling with these challenges and had grown frustrated with its traditional procurement process, which relied heavily on a paper-based system and made spending difficult to track. In an effort to modernize its approach to procurement and take advantage of the technology now available, Raleigh’s finance department started work on an electronic purchasing system.

Alliance for Excellence in School Budgeting members met last week at GFOA’s office in Chicago to develop a set of guiding principles for the budget process, based on GFOA’s new best practices. These guidelines center on aligning district resources with the areas that will have greatest impact on student achievement. The Alliance members are from 35 school districts across the country, from the largest to some of the smallest, and from urban, suburban, and rural areas.

On September 25, 2015, GFOA’s Executive Board approved five new best practices and seven revised best practices, providing recommendations to government finance officers in the areas of accounting, budget, retirement benefits administration, capital planning, and debt issuance.

The Supreme Court decided a number of important cases against local governments in its last term. The most notable of these was Reed v. Town of Gilbert, Arizona, which held that strict scrutiny applies to content-based sign ordinances. The October 2015 term will also be one to watch, not just because the Court has accepted numerous cases on controversial topics affecting local governments, but also because many of the court’s decisions this term are likely to be discussed by the 2016 presidential candidates up.

The Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada (GFOA) announced the members of its Alliance for Excellence in School Budgeting. The Alliance is composed of 35 school districts working with the GFOA to implement the Best Practices in School Budgeting. Alliance members include districts from 21 states across the US serving anywhere from a thousand students up to several hundred thousand students. Memers includes: 

GFOA’s 20th Annual Governmental GAAP Update will take place on November 5, 2015, with an encore presentation on December 3, from 1-5 p.m. (Eastern), both days. This four-hour presentation will bring you and your staff up-to-date on a year’s worth of developments in accounting and financial reporting, including the latest GASB statements, exposure drafts, and implementation guidance. Receive 4 CPE credits.

Specific topics to be covered include:

On March 13, 2014, President Obama signed a presidential memorandum directing the Department of Labor to modernize and streamline existing overtime regulations. The memorandum directs the DOL to propose specific regulations defining which white collar workers are protected by the Fair Labor Standards Act governing “white collar” exemption from overtime pay for executive, administrative and professional employees.