ROCHELLE — The City of Rochelle recently received notice of its receipt of the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) Distinguished Budget Award for the fifth year. 

Winning the award “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.” The GFOA established the Distinguished Budget Award in 1984 to encourage and assist state and local governments to prepare budget documents of the very highest quality that reflect both the guidelines established by the National Advisory Council on State and Local Budgeting and the GFOA's best practices on budgeting and then to recognize individual governments that succeed in achieving that goal. 

“It's been five years and I feel like every year we've gotten more efficient,” City Finance Director Chris Cardott said. “Now we learn different things and we include things that maybe would mean something to the public. We're just very pleased that we continue to receive it and we get top scores on all of the 27 criteria.”

Documents submitted to the program are reviewed by selected members of the GFOA professional staff and by outside reviewers with experience in public-sector budgeting. The award is the highest form of recognition in governmental budgeting.

Only budgets rated proficient or above in all four key areas, and across 14 mandatory sub-categories, are eligible for the award. Roughly 1,700 governmental units (state, county, local governments) receive a GFOA Distinguished Budget Award. Out of the 1,297 municipalities in Illinois, 87 or 6.7% of them have been recognized with this award.

“The first year was very hard,” Cardott said. “We were like a unicorn the way we got it our first year. Most first-year applicants don't. It's very informative and we put it on our website. It's 500+ pages. This budget also builds in the 20-year capital improvement plan. You can see what the city's improvement projects plans are years ahead. People can keep up with our projects and the costs and funding sources.”

The 2024 City of Rochelle budget was nearly $90 million. The document submitted for consideration for the award includes the budget and commentary, pictures, goals, and information about the community. It is due 90 days after the budget is approved by the city council.

Prior to city council approval, each city department head prepares their own budget by reviewing past years and projecting for the next year. City Manager Jeff Fiegenschuh and Cardott meet with each department in August and make any adjustments. Staff also works on the 20-year capital improvement plan at this time. When the draft budget and CIP are completed, they are presented at a committee of the whole meeting with the city council. The final budget must be approved by the end of the fiscal year, Dec. 31.

“It's a complete synopsis of the budget and the organization,” Fiegenschuh said of the city’s submission for the GFOA award. “It's a summary of everything. People can read it and have a pretty basic understanding of how the city operates. As part of this we had to incorporate performance measures and we updated them this year. A lot of cities don't track metrics like that. There's a lot that goes into it behind the scenes to make the document.”

Fiegenschuh said his favorite part of the GFOA award process has been the performance measures aimed at making each city department more efficient. Each department was asked to come up with at least three performance measures to track.

The city manager said the budget document lends itself to the city’s efforts to be transparent. He feels that the more information the city gives people, the better they understand and feel more connected to their government.

“We're spending other people's money, so we have a responsibility to be as transparent as possible so people see where their dollars are being spent,” Fiegenschuh said. “If something happens with our budgeting and we need to pivot and move in a different direction, having a transparent organization helps people to know what's going on. I'm proud of Chris and her staff. There's a lot of work that goes into it.”