Financial Services

Values are beliefs that do not change over time. They are what we believe in, what we do, and what govern our decisions on a day-to-day basis. They are the principles and standards for the framework upon which the Department of Financial Services is built. These core values maintain the public trust.

Superior Customer Service
We are committed to providing innovative service in a manner that is courteous, responsive, and efficient.  We require a high standard of performance and commitment to excellence from employees in order to provide the highest level of service to all.

Integrity
We will carry out our responsibilities with integrity by conducting County business in a responsible, conscientious, ethical, and professional manner.

Accountability
We provide stewardship of public resources as evidenced by factually accurate information and effective internal controls that promote reliability and accountability.

The Department of Financial Services is comprised of the following divisions:

Accounting and GL

• Administers financial recordkeeping and reporting systems
• Ensures compliance with applicable accounting laws and procedures
• Prepares Comprehensive Annual Financial Report and Annual Operating and Capital Budget Document
• Prepares monthly financial reports for management
• Responsible for debt administration and revenue management
• Oversees the annual audit process

Purchasing

• Acts as the centralized procurement agency for supplies, materials, and services in accordance with the Purchasing Ordinance
• Assists departments in developing specifications and procurement initiatives
• Assures compliance with state and local procurement laws
• Assists departments with contract negotiations and execution
• Educates the business community about County procurement processes through outreach programs
• Collaborates with multiple internal and external participants to manage the contract lifecycle
• Reviews and submits contract documents and modifications for approval consistent with the Gwinnett County Purchasing Ordinance
• Partners with the County Clerk (official custodian of County records) to store and manage contract documents in a single repository

 Service

• Interacts with individual departments on a daily basis for functions such as financial management and planning, treasury, and accounting services
• Provides external customers with monthly budget tracking and variances, initiative updates, monthly tasks, and more
• Provides cross training, finance training, and service delivery training where applicable
• Assists departments and agencies with grants-related requests and activities
• Researches grant opportunities, provides technical assistance in grant writing, and administratively manages all grants awarded to the County
• Administers contractual relationship with management firm of HUD CDBG programs
• Oversees the grant funding agency audit process
• Prepares, monitors, analyzes, and provides a financial plan (budget) to the Board of Commissioners for generating revenues and disbursing money to operate County government
• Prepares and implements County budget and five-year capital improvement plan
• Ensures compliance with applicable budgetary laws and procedures
• Monitors and maintains approved departmental budgets throughout the fiscal year
• Analyzes expenditures in conjunction with revenues for long-term budget planning
• Provides administrative financial oversight to County departments
• Monitors, projects, and communicates financial trends and issues

Solid Waste

• Builds partnerships with haulers who have a history of service excellence
• Ensures hauler compliance with established service standards and the County ordinance
• Builds community awareness of the need to minimize the production of waste, and the need to consider solid waste management from an environmental perspective
• Delivers sound and cost-effective solutions for waste management
• Ensures solid waste management best practices are deployed in the field
• Enhance the abilities and knowledge of our Solid Waste and Recovered Materials Division's personnel to support superior service to our customers

Strategic Business Development

• Develops and implements a strategic plan for information technology solutions
• Creates and delivers employee development programs and comprehensive training
• Develops documentation of department-wide policies and procedures
• Leads continuous improvement initiatives of critical processes
• Advances and facilitates performance tracking methods for the department utilizing the Balanced Scorecard and other tracking methods
• Creates and enhances data reporting  

Tax Assessor*

• Provides certain land records (ownership and GIS cadastral) services for County departments
• Advises other divisions within the department as to trends that would potentially affect property tax revenues
• Takes responsibility for compliance with Georgia statutes and regulations governing property tax assessments, tax exemptions, etc.

*This division is administratively aligned within Financial Services; however, many divisional activities are governed by state law and oversight is provided by a Board of Tax Assessors appointed by the Board of Commissioners.

Treasury

• Establishes and maintains relationships with financial institutions
• Oversees cash receipt processing
• Manages investment programs
• Disburses all County funds, except those held by constitutional officers
• Manages settlement of property and liability claims
• Manages long- and short-term debt
• Safeguards all County assets in its care through effective internal controls, sound investments, risk management, and accurate claims mitigation
• Assures financial integrity in the collection, investment, and disbursement of funds

The 2030 Unified Plan is the County's basis for the strategic development.  Within the plan, there are five broad themes: 

• Promote Economic Development and Fiscal Health
• Foster Redevelopment
• Enhance Mobility and Accessibility
• Ensure More Housing Choices
• Keep Gwinnett a "Preferred Place"

These themes link directly to the Financial Services Department in the areas of developing a strategy behind revenues, examining debt financing for infrastructure, and securing grant funding for re-vitalization. The Department will be involved in providing broad-spectrum support for all user departments for the implementation of programs. 

Financial Services 2011 Strategic Goals 

• Develop outreach program on Gwinnett County's current and future financial condition
  • Develop strategies to address the condition of the department
  • Convey the costs in services  
• Expand rehabilitation assistance from HUD Grants
  • Identify down payment assistance and rehabilitation funds for County residents
  • Pursue foreclosed single family residential properties in the County for resale

• Grant Applications
  • Perform targeted department grant funding needs assessment
  • Submit grant applications for multiple departments  
• Infrastructure Debt Financing
  • Evaluate and pursue refunding opportunities for debt service savings
  • Pro-active communication of the County’s financial condition with the rating agencies
• Financial Reporting
  • Continue tradition of excellence in financial reporting with production of the Annual Budget document and Comprehensive Annual Financial Report

• Compliance and Transparency
  • Facilitate the annual external audit with Mauldin and Jenkins
  • Address significant findings or observations from the audit, if any are noted in the report 

• Procurement
  • Pursue staff development with a focus on professional development through Purchasing certifications and advancement in formal education
  • Improve vendor participation, knowledge, and interaction through Purchasing Symposium
  • Maximize cost saving opportunities through negotiated cost savings
  • Advance process efficiencies through technology updates and process documentation

• Tax Assessment
  • Successfully submit digest for certification
  • Prepare tax assessors office for significant increase in issuing notices, and receiving appeals
  • Enhance taxpayer property value information, appeals process and automated solutions accessible via the web.

• Balanced Scorecard
  • Link our strategic objectives to Financial Services' mission and vision
  • Create greater visibility of performance at division level
  • Refine performance measures to focus on desired outcomes
  • Develop production-level measures on scorecards
  • Create clear and concise strategic objectives and initiatives 

• Employee Participation
  • Build comprehensive training to provide and improve skills
  • Develop individual-level scorecard performance measures
  • Promote ownership and "buy in"
  • Increase accountability for performance for teams and individuals
  • Enhance internal communication and collaboration 

• Business Processes
  • Deploy continuous improvement program to improve service delivery processes
  • Increase ROI for specific processes
  • Enhance policies and procedures platform

2011 Environmental Challenges

External

• Increased demand for services
• Increased budget pressures

 Internal

• Increased demand for services
• Systems development and implementation
• Change management
• Delayed personnel replacement program

Specific Departmental Issues for FY 2011

• Implementation of GASB Statement 54 and Fund Balance Reporting
• Upgrade Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) component of ERP and expand vendor/contract functionality
• Managing quarterly appropriations without impacting critical operations
• Mid-year reconciliation of the budget with the current financial challenges
• Increase residential recycling
• Develop a comprehensive solid waste plan for commercial application that includes recycling
• Update Solid Waste Management Plan
• Develop public outreach for solid waste
• Upgrade of ERP system and expand functionality
• Implement new requirements for property tax assessment required by Georgia law
• Implement online return and assessment notice improvements
• Implement 3 percent withholding on vendors effective Jan. 1, 2013, (IRS code section 3402(t) - 2006 Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation)

Departmental Issues for FY 2011 and Beyond 

• Impact of additional GASB Statements
• Providing data to facilitate fully informed financial decisions
• Increase residential recycling opportunities
• Implement commercial recycling program
• Continue public outreach for solid waste with the overall goal of reducing waste
• Expand and enhance ERP functionality
• Maintaining equitable values in the face of legislative mandates
• Ability to estimate revenue in an unstable economic environment

Triple AAA
Gwinnett continues to garner AAA debt ratings from all three rating agencies for the 14th straight year. This has enabled Gwinnett to incorporate a strong capital improvement program which encompasses both pay-as-you-go financing and debt borrowings. The County acknowledges both the controllable and uncontrollable factors that influence the bond rating. Wherever possible, plans have been implemented to facilitate the maintenance of the AAA rating.

Develop Property Tax Digest and Comply with State Requirements
To aid your understanding of this issue, we submit the following information:

Tax Digest Certification Procedures
Every third year (2008, 2011, 2013) the Department of Revenue performs an extensive study of the methods and procedures of the Assessor's Office and calculates several statistical measurements on the property values.  The County must correct any deficiencies found by the state before the next review year.  A $5 per-parcel penalty can be imposed for failure to correct a deficiency identified and not corrected within three years.  Gwinnett County currently has approximately 275,000 parcels; thus the penalty could be $1.35 million.

Management of Tax Appeal Process
The successful management of the property tax appeal process is critical to the submission of the Tax Digest to the state and the timely distribution of tax bills.  Implementation of legislative changes in the Notice of Current Assessment and the appeal process are expected to be challenging for the next few tax years.  The new law requires issuance of a Notice of Current Assessment to all properties (275,000) and creates two new appeal procedures.  We will see a slight change in the digest approval and tax billing and collection schedule for 2011 and possibly 2012.

The expected delay is the effect of the number of property tax appeals filed.  The value under appeal must be reduced to a workable amount so an estimate of value loss may be included in establishing tax rates and therefore revenue projections.  The Tax Assessor's Office must be prepared to deal with appeals quickly.

Value Update Process
The Board of Assessors has adopted a policy of changing the values annually on the properties identified as out of compliance each year.  A study consisting of comparing market data and sales prices to tax values is developed for each neighborhood (1,400+ countywide) on an annual basis.  Those neighborhoods failing to meet the minimum standards are selected for the value change process in the following tax year.  This process maintains acceptable valuations in the tax digest without concentrating considerable efforts and recourses in single revaluation years.