Fort Worth eyes tighter control of unused bond dollars

City Manager David Cooke has proposed tightening the review process and requiring the approval of the mayor and City Council to spend unused money in bond and capital improvement programs.

Cooke suggested the proposed policy change Friday during the second day of budget workshops.

Until now, the city staff had the authority to move unspent money from one project to another. The council recently learned that the practice, coupled with a lack of proper accounting and project oversight, has meant that some projects in bond programs were never completed as promised and others didn’t have enough money.

So far, $1.7 million has been moved from the street maintenance fund to cover the shortfalls. That could grow when the council gets the new figure next month.

“The change we will make is that only the mayor and the council, through formal action, can change an appropriation of a project,” Cooke said.

On Oct. 1, the city will implement the second phase of enterprise resource planning. The business management software program will be a stopgap measure because it will not allow the city to overspend an appropriation.

Cooke also recommended an annual review of the status of projects.

“It’s critical we do this to continue to get these projects delivered and closed on time and know exactly what our funds are,” Mayor Betsy Price said. “This goes a long way toward solving the issues that came up on the open projects.”

Councilman Jungus Jordan said the proposed policy change is encouraging, particularly in light of the overruns on the $3.8 million Chisholm Trail Park in his district, a project in the 2014 bond program. It includes a $1 million skate park, but the appropriation is now $400,000 short.

“Now we don’t have enough money to do the skate park, only part of it,” Jordan said. “Now we’re piecemealing it and will have to come back later to finish it.”

Jordan said he will seek corporate or other donations to complete the skate park, designed to be one of the best in North Texas.

The council is scheduled to vote next month on a nearly $1.6 billion budget for fiscal 2016. The council will not raise the property tax rate of 85.5 cents per $100 of assessed valuation, but water rates will change for some customers based on consumption.

The council will also consider a fee that would charge developers for infrastructure plan reviews. If that’s approved, developers would pay $312 per plan sheet, beginning Oct. 1. The cost would include an initial review and reviews of two revisions. A plan review of 30 sheets, for example, would cost the developer $9,360.

This story was originally published August 21, 2015 at 6:25 PM with the headline "Fort Worth eyes tighter control of unused bond dollars."