Financial Administration in the City of San Antonio TX Essay

Financial Administration in the City of San Antonio TX - Essay Example The researcher states that budgeting in the City of San Antonio TX is done by the office of Management and Budgeting. It is meant to act as a financial guide, a policy paper and a financial plan. The city of San Antonio TX budget is well formulated and executed. The budget presents an adequate overview of the entity and its financial position. This is so because it provides a summary of all the budget components, its allocation and the role of these components in enhancing the objectives of the city. The budget summary covers the element of public safety, where the police and the fire department of the city are committed to respond to the safety needs of the city residents. The budget seeks to increase the number of officers in patrol and also the fire vehicle technicians. Street maintenance is another element covered by the summary, with an additional $ 1.8 for pavement preservation and some more $6 million provided to cater for advanced transport. Animal care services will be cater ed for by a $1.7 million while education and library services will be funded to a tune of $30.6 million, which will cater for the construction of new libraries and fund the operations of the already existing ones. Employee compensation and Economic development are the other components of the budget, allocating $32 million towards civilian salary adjustments and $7 million to support the creation of new jobs, support new business development and encourage new investments. (Maria, 2011). This gives a brief overview of the budget and its components, while giving information about the city objective at a glance, to make the city government smarter and more efficient. The greatest percentage of the operating budget is accounted for by public safety, which involves fire and police department, financed to a tune of $343 million, in a total adopted budget of $948 million. The reason for such huge funding of the department is because the public safety is the priority of the city of San Anton io TX (Maria, 2011). To enhance this public safety through community policing and neighborhood teamwork, the budget seeks to increase the number of officers in patrol for narcotics by 17 more. It also seeks to add another 25 officers to the service of the people and an additional 4 fire vehicle technicians to enhance rapid response services to the public. The department is also to be awarded with two more management analyst to enhance the management of the police and the fire department, and to enhance its effectiveness and efficiency. The technology used by the department is to be advanced through new software development and installations, meant to improve the payroll division of the department. Owing to the above needs for improvements in the department of fire and police, and due to the crucial role it plays of providing public safety, the city’s office of management and budget sought to allocate more fund to this department (Paul, 1998). The department alone accounts for close to 40% of all the funding done in the annual budget of 2012. This is a clear indication that the interest of the city residents takes priority in the city’s management issues. Police protection is the category within that area that accounts for the greatest budget, being a key service that is very crucial for the wellbeing of the people. A total of $1.5 is to be dedicated to the improvement of neighborhood and narcotics patrol. This is meant to increase the presence of police in all the areas of the city, thus reduce the rates of crimes and drug abuse. $850,000 is meant to reassign 17 police officers to patrols, while $597,000 is meant for increasing the number of officers serving the community neighborhoods. A new helicopter mechanic, and another new helicopter mechanics supervisor are to be hired to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of services delivered to the people by the fire and the police department. This will be funded to a tune of