‘It's a great team and it feels good to be able to go above and beyond’

ROCHELLE — The City of Rochelle recently received notification that it received the Government Finance Officers Association Distinguished Budget Award for the third year in a row. 

The award was established in 1984 and “reflects a commitment to meeting the highest principles of governmental budgeting and compliance with nationally-recognized guidelines, including having a budget that serves effectively as a policy document, a financial plan, an operations guide and a communications device.” Out of 1,297 municipalities in the state, 87 (6.7) percent are recognized each year.

"We were very proud of the team and the finance department and each department that contributed to it,” Industrial Development Manager Peggy Friday said. “The document is a transparent idea of how taxpayer money is spent. I think it's just a testimony to the council, the mayor, the city manager and the departments on how fiscally responsible we really are and all of the things that we do in the course of the year.”

Three years ago, the city received the award for the first time against long odds in its first attempt at it. The application required a year and a half of work gathering information and organization by Friday, Finance Director Chris Cardott and department heads.

Friday called the chances of receiving the award in a first attempt “nearly impossible” and said 1-5 percent of municipalities have done it. 

“I looked at all of the other hundreds of winners and the best parts of each of them,” Friday said. “Chris goes through and makes sure all of the budgetary stuff is there. The first year was always the hardest. And then each year we add to it. The reviewers also send a list of comments. Things they think may be missing or things that we could maybe improve on. We take that as the template for the next year. There's four categories and we've been proficient and high in probably 90 percent of the categories. It's a testimony to our finance department, transparency and everybody that contributes.”

City Manager Jeff Fiegenschuh said the GFOA award strives to encourage government transparency and the finished product makes a dense city budget easier to read and understand. The city’s submissions for the past three years can be found on cityofrochelle.net. 

The award submission is 90 pages long and expands on the budget with capital improvement plans, project highlights, photos, departments and organizations the city works with. It also aligns with the city’s strategic plan. 

“Residents can go and find it and read it and there’s a glossary,” Friday said. “People can look something up and there's information to explain what it means. There's pictures, charts and graphs and it just really shows how all the money is spent and what the future plans are.”

Fiegenschuh praised staff for their work on the award and the budgeting process. He said the city has also received the Certificate of Achievement in Financial Reporting on the audit side for eight or nine years in a row. 

“It's a great team and it feels good to be able to go above and beyond,” Fiegenschuh said. “It sounds like 125 is a lot of staff, but that's 125 people that are doing all kinds of different jobs. To have staff that's dedicated to pull all of this information together in an easy-to-read way is amazing.”

Fiegenschuh said good budgeting is important to what goes in a fiscal year, with both expected and unexpected expenditures. At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the mayor and city council cut their budget by around $1 million in anticipation of lost revenues. 

The award process has also yielded feedback to help the city improve its budgeting, Fiegenschuh said.

“I'm honored that we received the award,” Fiegenschuh said. “This document helps us understand where we're at and where we want to go in the future and how best to get there. It also helps us understand where we've failed and stumbled and what we can do to change so we don't do that in the future. That's important.”