City Celebrates Fiscal Achievement, Government Finance Professionals
Published on March 05, 2025
In a special proclamation at the Thursday, March 6, 2025 meeting of the Gainesville City Commission, Mayor Harvey L. Ward will declare March 17 to 21 as Government Finance Professionals Week. The proclamation honors the hard work of these essential personnel and provides an opportunity to recognize the city’s recent success in overcoming financial hurdles.
In March 2024, the City of Gainesville closed the books on five years of difficult financial reporting by receiving a clean financial audit from external auditor Purvis, Gray & Company. At that time, the city’s Department of Financial Services had completed the Fiscal Year 2023 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (ACFR) on schedule; resolved two lingering findings carried over from previous years; and finished with no findings.
In recognition of this accomplishment, the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) awarded Gainesville the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting. This honor signifies the city’s 2023 financial report met high standards of transparency, accuracy, strong financial management and accountability. With the Fiscal Year 2024 ACFR expected later this month, it is hoped the city will earn a clean financial audit for the second year in a row.
These continued improvements have been achieved through the implementation of strategies designed by City Manager Cynthia W. Curry, who arrived at the city in November 2021 and immediately escalated the organization’s financial health to the top of her list of priorities. She installed key staff to manage the specialized work of government accounting and dedicated resources to solving operational challenges.
Fast on the heels of those financial reporting corrections, however, came the substantial revenue reductions that followed the city’s separation from Gainesville Regional Utilities (GRU). By early 2023, the City Manager had announced a strategic hiring freeze and a swift pivot to zero-based budgeting, a technique introduced to lower city spending by streamlining operations without visibly changing each department’s high level of service.
The efficacy of this approach was affirmed in July 2024, when Fitch Ratings upgraded Gainesville’s credit rating, citing the hiring freeze and reductions in expenditures as two of the factors underpinning the city’s ability to maintain a financially balanced position. With the fiscal year 2026 budget now beginning to take shape, government finance professionals are guiding departmental leaders in the search for further efficiencies to pare down expenditures.
"This strategy ensures that we remain good stewards of public resources while positioning Gainesville for long-term financial stability,” said City Manager Curry. “As we look to the future, I am confident we will craft a prudent and conservative fiscal year 2026 budget proposal that meets the needs of our community."
Those community needs are also the work of the city’s finance and budget staff, who play a crucial role in carrying out the policy direction of the Gainesville City Commission. Their tasks include administering grants and funding, including the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), which to date has helped more than 40 local nonprofit organizations or external community partners focused on housing assistance, food security, homeless support services, workforce programs and affordable housing construction. Through September 30, 2024, $17.8 million (or 55%) of the $32.4 million in ARPA funding provided the city has been transferred for their support.
As a final feather in the finance cap, in February 2025 Gainesville earned the GFOA Distinguished Budget Presentation Award for the 36th time, making the city second in the state for the number of awards received. It is this commitment to fiscal responsibility and strategic financial planning that the proclamation honors, as the city celebrates the staff dedicated to building a stronger, more financially resilient Gainesville.