[HISTORY: Adopted by the Town Board of the Town of Batavia 12-21-2011. Amendments noted where applicable.]
GENERAL REFERENCES
Investment policy — See Ch. 20.
A. 
Reserve funds (which essentially are a legally authorized savings account for particular specific purposes) are an important component in the Town's financial planning for specific expenses, future projects, acquisitions and other lawful purposes. To this end, the Town may establish and maintain reserve funds in accordance with New York State laws. The Town will also consider rules and/or opinions issued by the New York State Comptroller when they are not in conflict with law.
B. 
Town reserve funds must be properly established and maintained to promote the goals of creating an open, transparent and accountable use of public funds. The Town may engage independent experts and professionals, including but not limited to auditors, accountants and other financial and legal counsel, as necessary to monitor all reserve fund activity and prepare reports that the Town Board may require.
The Town shall comply with the reporting requirements of Article 3 of General Municipal Law of the State of New York and the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) Statement Number 54, Fund Balance Reporting and Governmental Fund Types Definitions. The Board authorizes the Supervisor to complete the following actions as necessary to comply with the requirements of GASB Statement No. 54:
A. 
Restricted fund balances. Restricted fund balances consists of amounts that are subject to externally enforceable legal purpose restrictions imposed by creditors, grantors, contributors, or laws and regulations of other governments; or through constitutional provisions or enabling legislation.
B. 
Committed fund balances. Committed fund balances consists of amounts that are subject to a purpose constraint imposed by a formal action of the Town Board before the end of the fiscal year, and that require the same level of formal action to remove the constraint.
C. 
Assigned fund balances. Assigned fund balances consists of amounts that are subject to a purpose constraint that represents an intended use established by the government's highest level of decision-making authority, or by its designated body or official. The Board authorized the Supervisor to make a determination of the assigned amounts of fund balance. Assigned funds represent amounts intended to be used for a specific purpose. Assigned fund balances require the same level of authority to remove the constraint.
The formal action of the government's highest level of decision-making authority that restricts, commits or assigns fund balance to a specific purpose should occur prior to the end of the reporting period, but the amount, if any, which will be subject to the constraint, may be determined in the subsequent period.
The Town Board will determine the composition of its ending fund balance by applying its accounting policies regarding whether it considers restricted or unrestricted amounts to have been spent when an expenditure is incurred for purposes for which both restricted and unrestricted (committed, assigned, or unassigned) amounts are available. Similarly, within unrestricted fund balance, the classification should be based on the government's accounting policies regarding whether it considers committed, assigned or unassigned amounts to have been spent when an expenditure is incurred for purposes for which amounts in any of those unrestricted fund balance classifications could be used. If a government does not establish a policy for its use of unrestricted fund balance amounts, it should consider that committed amounts would be reduced first, followed by assigned amounts, and then unassigned amounts when expenditures are incurred for purposes for which amounts in any of those unrestricted fund balance classifications could be used.
A. 
The Town Board and management will periodically review all restricted committed and assigned fund balances. The Town will prepare and submit an annual report of all restricted, committed and assigned funds for the Town Board. The annual report shall include the following information for each reserve fund.
(1) 
The type and description of the reserve fund.
(2) 
The interest earned on each reserve fund.
(3) 
Capital gains of losses resulting from the sale of investments of the reserve funds.
(4) 
The sum total increase and sum total decrease in the reserve funds.
(5) 
The ending balance in the reserve funds at fiscal year end.
(6) 
A summary statement of projected use and the need of the reserve funds.
B. 
The Board shall utilize the information in the annual report to discuss reserve fund balances and to adequately maintain necessary funds for the Town's long-term financial planning. The Board will be mindful of its role and responsibility as a fiduciary of public funds when acting on reserve fund issues.