Here are the responses to our survey regarding a requirement to publish budget
or CAFR information in the newspaper.
Cathy,
Hi! Can you please send a fo;llow up email regarding the responses I got to
my email asking if anyone was aware of a requirement to publish either budget
or CAFR infomation in newspaper.
This is what I found out:
9 cities responded to the email. One has a city charter that requires
publication of liftable statements. Most respondents were not aware of any
requirement to publish financial statement or budget information (other than a
notice of a public hearing prior to adoption of the budget). Two cities
referenced Gov. Code Section 40804. After doing some researach, I found out
that this Govt. Code Section refers to the State Controllers Report. It
states "The City Clerk shall cause a summary of the city's financial report
required by Section 53891, in form prescribed by the State Controller, to be
published one in a newspaper of general cirulation, pursuant to Article 1
(Commencing with Section 6000), Chapter 1, Divison 7, Title 1 of the
Government Code" section 53891 requires logal agencies to file a State
Controllers Report.
Since I could not find anywhere where it described the "form prescribed by the
State Controller", I called Mike Adams at the State Controller's Office (916
323-2358). He told me that the "prescribed form" is page 3 of the State
Controller's Reprt. He said that previously they had not followed up to check
that City's are meeting this requirement. He did say that in July the State
Controller's Office sent a letter to all cities reminding them of this
requirement and asking them to respond as to whether or not they had met the
requirement. Only a handful of cities responded. There may be additional
follow up to ensure cities are meeting this requiement.
I was not able to find anything that documents a requirement for public notice
related to the budget and CAFR.
Thanks,
Jeanne
