SUNDRE — Council recently split up almost $1.5 million in operating surpluses from the past two years and allocated the funds among several reserve accounts.
Chris Albert, director of corporate services, told elected officials during a regularly scheduled council meeting last month conducted by teleconference, that the municipality has a restricted surplus account policy in place to provide administration with guidelines on handling surpluses.
Half of a functional department’s surplus is to be retained in that function’s stabilization reserve account, with the rest going into the general stabilization account, Albert said.
General stabilization, he explained, “is earmarked for emergencies and unbudgeted events.”
The municipality had surpluses of $572,467 in 2019 and $904,309 in 2020, he said, which can be the result of a combination of circumstances such as unfilled but budgeted staff positions, prudent spending practices, incomplete projects as well as unanticipated grant funding or other unexpected sources of revenue.
Once allocated to a specific reserve account, the funds are not necessarily permanently locked in place.
“Once we transfer this money into these restricted surplus accounts, the funds can be withdrawn at council’s authorization for current or future priorities,” said Albert.
By way of motion, council approved the allocation of the nearly $1.48 million accumulated operating surpluses from 2019 and 2020 to the following stabilization reserve accounts: $831,978 to general corporate; $53,216 to corporate services; $13,041 to protective services stabilization; $35,904 to municipal operations; $30,584 to development; $75,411 to community services; $421,489 to utility infrastructure lifecycling; and $15,153 to shared fire operating.
