Apple Valley only city in High Desert to earn award
From Staff Reports
The Town of Apple Valley can add one more accolade to its list of accomplishments: the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada recently presented the Town with the Distinguished Budget Presentation Award.
The Town, which is no stranger to receiving praise for its accounting practices, has been consistently ranked in the top 2 percent nationally for its accounting and financial reporting practices, according to a news release.
“This award reaffirms staff’s dedication to creating and improving transparency in the budget process,” said Assistant Town Manager Marc Puckett. “Ultimately it is about telling a story about how we connect the budget to our priorities and results to improve accountability to those we serve.”
Town officials said this award represents a significant achievement and reflects the commitment of the Town and its staff to meet the highest principles of governmental budgeting. In order to receive the award, the Town had to satisfy nationally recognized guidelines for effective budget presentation.
The guidelines are designed to assess how well an entity’s budget serves as a policy document, financial plan, an operations guide and a communications device; and must be rated “proficient” in 14 categories within each of those areas, the release states.
The GFOA’s Distinguished Budget Presentation Awards Program is the only national awards program in governmental budgeting, the association says. There are approximately 87,900 governmental units in the United States and 2,900 in Canada. Of those 90,800, approximately 1,340 or 1.47 percent received the award. Apple Valley is also the only municipality in the High Desert to receive this award.