Interactive Financial Sustainability Analysis

Like many communities in Florida, Coral Springs was facing a grim financial outlook stemming from the housing collapse in 2008. Management balanced budgets by delaying capital investments and relying on one-time cash windfalls from property sales and other non-recurring sources. Cash flow deficits continued and were projected to worsen without corrective action. The City engaged Stantec’s financial services practice to prepare a diagnostic analysis of the City’s General Fund using our proprietary Financial Analysis & Management System (FAMS).

The analysis revealed that annual cost escalation would outpace revenues, resulting in cash flow deficits through the ten-year project period. The deficits would require use of unrestricted reserves and ultimately deplete them below the minimum required threshold within a year. The solution? Using FAMS, our team evaluated the impacts of adjusting key variables, including salary increases and the structure of the City’s employee healthcare plan. The City used our live modeling capabilities in townhall style sessions with employee groups to show how the City had reached a critical point requiring tough decisions to restrict cost growth.

City Management credits the use of FAMS in real-time during department meetings for getting buy-in from employees and ultimately their ability to pass the adopted budget.