The Pompano Beach Story: Long-Term Strategic Planning and Financial Policies Best Practices

Forecasting and Monitoring Revenues and Expenditures

The City of Pompano Beach's Long-Term Planning: Strategic Planning and Performance Management

  • The Five-Year Planning Process takes place each year in Jan/Feb before the end of the previous five-year plan.
  • The Annual Planning Process, a department activity setting based on establishing annual program priority goals.
  • The Quarterly Performance Reviews are held at the department level, with each quarter focusing on different departments.
  • The Quarterly Strategic Plan Presentation at City Commission meetings to share with City Commissioners and the community strategic plan implementation progress.
  • DATA Meetings are held monthly, with each month focusing on a different department to review reported performance data and targets.

Strategic Planning Roadmap Diagram

The Strategic Plan provides overall direction and vision for the City of Pompano Beach as a high-level planning document. The five-year planning cycle contains six (6) high level community goals that reflect stakeholder input and promotes the City's long-term vision by FY 2035: Pompano Beach is a superior place to live, visit, and locate or expand a business along the Atlantic Coast of South Florida.


Moreover, the goals of the Strategic Plan directly inform the priorities, measures, and annual targets that are the basis of the one (1) year Action Agenda. Specific activities and milestones contained in the Action Agenda ensure the Strategic Plan is operationalized. The Strategic Plan provides for long and short-term decision making by the City Commission and Senior Leadership to make choices among competing demands for capital investment, human resources, and service levels.


Performance measures are utilized to tell a story about the efficiency and effectiveness of the services offered and overall ability to implement our strategies and achieve the Strategic Plan Objectives. During the budget process, staff focuses on linking budget enhancement requests to achieve desired program, process and service performance, based on strategic targets, so that resources could be invested in areas determined to have the greatest return on investment and alignment with City Commission priorities. During the budget development process, staff aims to achieve a 75% linkage between department proposed budget enhancements and Strategic Plan priorities.


In order to accelerate informed management decisions, departments are create measures that communicate what/how much we do (output), how well we do it (efficiency), and what are the benefits/impact to the community (outcome).

Strategic Planning Process Roadmap Diagram

Essential Performance Management Elements: Creating Program Goals And Plan Strategies

  • Program goal worksheet instructions distributed in the 1st Qtr. The worksheets are used, by departments, to identify programs and prepare description, identify annual program goals, create quantifiable outcomes (aka program objectives), and to highlight potential challenges to meeting the desired goals.
  • These goals are then entered into each departments balanced scorecard to establish alignment to the City's focus areas, which roll back to the Strategic Plan objectives and community goals, and supported by funding decisions.
  • Quantifiable outcomes assist staff in creationing SMART key performance measures (KPIs) and to adjust annual targets.
  • The Florida Benchmarking Consortium (FBC) publishes an annual report, which is used by departments for benchmarking against other municipalities and to evaluate data trends and industry standards.
  • On-going quarterly performance review sessions are held with each department to evaluate adopted strategy implementation progress and to facilitate performance discussion.
  • Departments participate in on-going monthly DATA meetings to review accuracy of reported data and data collection methodology.
  • Prior to the Strategic Plan Retreat in the 2nd Quarter of each fiscal year (Jan/Feb), staff completes a questionnaires to identify management in progress issues, initiatives for the next year, and COVID-19 impacts.
  • One Mayor, City Commission Strategic Plan workshop and two Management Team work sessions are subsequently held, in January or February, to establish top and high annual priorities, and identify potential strategies based on yearly program performance and develop Action Agenda outlines, respectively.
  • Annual Strategic Plan adoption by City Commission in the 4th Qtr.
  • Implement Action Agenda Strategies and corresponding activites, and commmence progress reporting.

Balanced Scorecard

During the course of the year, departments continued to developed strategic balanced scorecards (BSC). The utilization of BSC will enable the visualization of how strategies are aligned to key performance indicators. In doing so, it provides a balanced view of performance with respect to customer excellence, operational effectiveness, personnel, and fiscally sustainable. BSC will be incorporated into two planning processes, strategic planning and the budget process. Once established, the proposed strategic plan strategies and priorities will be aligned with resource allocation decisions; thereby, promoting a two-prong budgeting approach to drive Citywide performance and the achievement of Strategic Plan objectives. To achieve Plan objectives and sustain performance excellence, it is important that our goals align to our focus areas, which roll to strategic plan objectives, and supported by funding decisions.


The City's balanced scorecard has four focus areas designed to measure the effectiveness of departmental activities against the strategic plan and to demonstrate how those activities align to the overall strategy:

  • Fiscally Sustainable: Financially, how should we appear to our residents?
  • Operational Efficiency, Effectiveness, and Response: Which business processes must we excel at?
  • Customer Excellence: What do our customers expect from us?
  • Department Personnel: How will we sustain our ability to change and improve?
Balanced Scorecard - Performance Management Example

The table above illustrates the Performance Management Department's balanced scorecard.

Budget Intergration

Funding decisions are facilitated through the identification of priorities and the development of strategies and operational plans.


The success of strategies and operational plans are determined through the evaluation of performance – and use the data to fine tune the Strategic Plan.

Budget Integration

The City's Adopted Budget - A Balanced Budget

The City of Pompano Beach adopts its operating budget and the five-year capital improvement budget on an annual basis and utilizes TRIM (Truth in Millage Law, passed in 1980 by the Florida State Legislature) designed to keep the public informed about the taxes as proposed by the City.


Structurally-Balanced Budget - The total of the anticipated revenues shall equal the total expenditures. According to Florida Statute 166.241 (2), the budget must be adopted by ordinance or resolution unless otherwise specified in the respective municipality’s charter. The amount available from taxation and other sources, including balances brought forward from prior fiscal years, must equal the total appropriations for expenditures and reserves. The FY

2020-2021 budget is balanced.

Summary Of The City's Financial Policies

A summary of the City's Financial Policies that can be found in our FY 2021 Adopted Operating Budget Book include the City's:


- Cash management and investment policies

- Fund balance/net position policy for the City's General Fund and its Water and Sewer and Stormwater funds

- Debt management policy

- Pension plans

- Accounting and financial reporting policies

- Reserve policies

- Financial stability policies


In addition, the Adopted Operating Budget document includes the Five-Year Capital Improvement Plan for the City. Although, the plan presents five year revenue and expenditure projections, it gets updated and adopted every fiscal year, parallelly with the adoption of the annual operating budget.

FY 2021 Budget In A Nutshell

The total City of Pompano Beach adopted budget for FY 2021 is $310,987,988; which represents a 0.9% increase or a $2.89M increase over the FY 2020 adopted budget of $308,097,547.


The City’s tax base for FY 2021 increased by $830M, for a total of $14,489,080,522. New construction totals $247,153,690. The increasing tax base allows the City to annually maintain the service levels and a competitive tax rate.


The Covid-19 Pandemic outbreak has presented the City with many financial challenges and difficult decisions for both FY 2020 and FY 2021. As the City is simultaneously proposing to maintain the same service levels for the residents, the FY 2021 adopted financial plan was presented to the City Commission without any increases in fire assessment fees or millage rates.


Other impacts for FY 2021 include: Deferred the majority of new budget requests from all departments; deferred the majority of the capital replacement plan and accommodated less pay-as-you-go capital improvement projects; eleven (11) vacant full-time positions were frozen in various departments; and various operating reductions were implemented in major departments in the General Fund, such as: public works, parks and recreation; and cultural affairs.

What Is New For FY 2021?

Although, the City faces many challenges throughout the year, such as Covid-19 Pandemic, recurring challenges as aging infrastructure, sea level rise, legislative hurdles and other socio-economic trials; the City continues to expand its services and invest in its infrastructure consistently with its long-term Strategic Plan and Vision to improve quality of life for the residents:


- Additional Core Unit and Northwest Zone Deputies programs to ensure the public safety of our City;

- Accounting for the Emergency Medical Services - Medicaid Supplemental Payment Program;

- Creating a Marketing Department which will promote our City and our services;

- Approval of $30 million in Broward County Surtax funded capital improvement projects;

- Opening of the Charlotte Burrie Civic Center;

- Additional eleven (11) new full-time positions citywide; and

- Planning to open its Municipal Charter School for the 2023-2024 school year.


In addition, the City continues to implement its General Obligation Bond funded capital improvement projects, which will enhance our infrastructure, roads, sidewalks, parks and recreation facilities, and public safety facilities. The uniquely-designed beach lifeguard towers and the reconstructed Fisher Family Pier are now complete.

Visualizing Your Budget: FY 2021 Adopted Operating Budget Book And OpenGov Financial Transparency

Since 2014, the City of Pompano Beach has utilized OpenGov Financial Transparency portal which allows the residents to understand, access and visualize the City’s historical data and the current annual budgets.

Forecasting And Monitoring Revenues and Expenditures


What Are The Major Revenue Sources For FY 2021?

Adopted total revenues for Fiscal Year 2021 for the City of Pompano Beach equal $310,987,988: Ad-valorem taxes 27%, sales and use taxes 9%, licenses and permits 10%, intergovernmental revenues 5%, charges for services 24%, fines and forfeitures 0%, miscellaneous revenues 4%, other financing sources 18% and fund balance 3%. The major revenue sources, based on 5% or higher, total $288,461,298. For Fiscal Year 2021, major revenues account for approximately 93% of total budgeted revenues.

Revenue Forecasting Methods

The revenue estimates for Fiscal Year 2021 are forecasted by the Budget Office and the Treasury Division based on historical trends, City Commission approved rate/fee adjustments, forecasted economic indicators conducted by the State’s Office of Economic and Demographic Research (EDR), Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), as well as, the in-house Municast forecasting model. However, each year comes with challenges whether they are legislative challenges, rate updates, and/or other socio-economic factors.


FY 2021 revenue forecasting was heavily impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. Forecasting for major revenue categories such as: state revenue sharing, local option gas tax, communication service tax, pari-mutuel (Isle Casino) and half-cent sales tax mirrored the 2008-2009 crisis projection levels. It is estimated that the total loss in revenues from the above mentioned revenue streams will be approximately $1.2M. It is important to highlight that for FY 2021 there are no increases in the operating millage rate and the fire assessment fees.

Monitoring Major Revenue Sources: State Revenue Sharing, Local Option Gas Tax (LOGT), Half-Cent Sales Tax, Communication Service Tax and Pari-Mutuel

The City utilizes dashboards to monitor budget to actuals revenues and expenditures. The dashboards can be customized to reflect a single account, a group of accounts, a department, a division or a particular fund of interest. In this dashboard, presented as actuals as % budget bar chart, we have grouped together and are monitoring some of the major revenue streams: State Revenue Sharing, LOGT, Half-Cent Sales Tax, Communication Service Tax and Pari-Mutuel (Isle Casino), on a monthly basis. The dashboards allow staff to compare this year's receipts with past years' collection for the same period of time.

Where Does The Money Go?

Approximately, 30.30% of the total budgeted funds are dedicated to public safety; 20.72% to physical environment, which includes expenditures such as water/wastewater, solid waste, stormwater, as well as, public works related activities; 10.73% transportation; 0.18% human services; 13.48% cultural arts and recreation; 14.65% general government services; 1.44% reserves; 5.29% other uses; and 3.21% debt service.

Monitoring Expenditures - Example

Staff utilizes dashboards to monitor budget to actuals expenditures. in this isntance, we are showing water and wastewater activity as a gauge to compare actuals with the adopted budget.

Summary

The primary motive driving the City of Pompano Beach's City Commission is the conviction that improvement is driven by purposeful behavior. Purposeful behavior is a systemic approach that places emphasis on City processes and focuses on producing results that benefit the public. Accomplishing this requires more than a conceptual framework. It requires dedication to strategic planning and setting high expectation for performance. During FY 2020, the Performance Management Office and Budget Office continued the implementation of GFOA best practices that provide for sustainable long-term financial policies, strategies, and services, while providing for a transparent balanced budget.


Within the past few years, the City has taken numerous steps to establish the foundation necessary to facilitate learning and strengthen the organization’s focus on results. Annually, the Strategic Plan is updated with the goal of establishing direction that guides long and short term decision making by the City Commission and Senior Leadership for the purpose of making choices among competing demands for capital investment, human resources, and service levels. During the budget process, City departments focused on linking budget enhancements to Strategic Plan objectives so that resources could be invested in areas determined to have the greatest return on investment and alignment with City Commission and departmental priorities.


The City's annual adopted operating budget document which includes the five-year capital planning budget has received the Distinguished Budget Presentation Award since FY 2015. The financial document is prepared of the very highest quality that reflects the guidelines established by the City, National Advisory Council on State and Local Budgeting and the Government Finance Officers Association’s (GFOA) best practices on budgeting.

Additional Information

For FAQ and more information on the City's budget, please visit the City's Budget Webpage, Strategic Plan Webpage and the FY 2021 Budget-In-Brief publication.


All rights reserved to the Budget Office and the Performace Management Office, City of Pompano Beach.