General Budget Information
FY2026 Pocatello Tentative
Budget - Revenue
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FY2026 Pocatello Tentative
Budget - Expenditure
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FY2025 Pocatello Adopted
Budget - Revenue
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FY2025 Pocatello Adopted
Budget - Expenditure
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FY2024 Pocatello Adopted
Budget - Revenue
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FY2024 Pocatello Adopted
Budget - Expenditure
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Current Purchase Card (P-Card) Purchasing Facts
How Significant is P-Card Use?
Approximately 900-to-1000 P-Card purchases occur monthly.
As evidenced in the Pocatello 03/13/2023 “Material Claims Report” [look for the green-highlighted line for “Wells-Fargo Purchase Card”] on the City website (here), monthly P-card purchases are significant ($281K just in February 2023.) With $4.2M spent on P-Cards during the previous 12 months. That equates to approximately 8% of the entire annual Material Claims budget.
What are P.A.G.E.'s Concerns with
P-Cards?
# 1 The council does not review purchasing card expenditure reports.
To the best of our knowledge and based on public record requests, Council continues to NOT review pcard purchases. In FY23, Councilman Cheatum told us he reviewed them (which would require him to visit the Finance department and look through receipts and/or statements.) The unanswered question is “Why isn’t the full Council reviewing all P-Card purchases monthly?” We now know that the City has had the capability of creating comprehensive reports that contain both vendor checks and pcards because the City has been providing these regularly in past public records to specific companies.
Note: Purchasing agents accumulating $10K-or-higher in monthly spending are identified in monthly “Material Claims Reports” [look for a list of purchase agent names, departments and totals-spent at the end of reports] on the City website (here). However, this limited report groups both vendor check and p-card spending together to identify "high dollar" purchasing agents.
In May 2023, P.A.G.E. asked Council this question and awaits a response: “Why isn’t Council reviewing all P-Card purchases monthly?”
# 2 Without outside monitoring, purchasing cards are subject to misuse and could be used to bypass financial policy and/or the Council's approval for certain expenditures.
What is a P-Card?
Purchasing cards or “P-Cards” are city credit cards issued to designated City employees. In Pocatello, over 250 individuals (approximately 1/2 of all City employees) have P-Cards. P-cards are a necessary and cost-effective way to process low-cost expenditures for travel, gas, incidentals, and many other types of purchases.
They grant immediate access to products needed within departments and reduce the number of vendor checks. Plus the City benefits by receiving an annual cash-back amount (revenue) based on spending. The Purchasing Card Policy can be found here, and in the Finance section.
Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (ACFR)
See Pocatello ACFR Details Here
City Council Periodic Budget Review and Provisions for Public Reviews
State Statutes
50-1010. AUDIT OF CITY FINANCES — AUDIT TO BE FILED. It shall be the duty of the council in every city to cause to be made a full and complete audit of the financial statements of such city as required in section 67-450B, Idaho Code.
The council shall be required to include all necessary expenses for carrying out the provisions of this section in its annual budget.
50-1011. PUBLICATION OF FINANCIAL STATEMENTS — NONCOMPLIANCE. It shall be the duty of the city treasurer to cause to be published quarterly during each fiscal year for at least one (1) insertion in the official newspaper of the city, a full statement of each separate account, fund or appropriation for the year to date, and balances of the debits and credits belonging thereto, indicating salaries, capital outlay and a percentage comparison to the original appropriation. All published financial statements shall include the following: "Citizens are invited to inspect the detailed supporting records of the above financial statements." Such statement shall be published within thirty (30) days from the end of each quarter, except for the final quarter of the fiscal year which shall be published no later than thirty (30) days from the date of completion of the annual audit. Notwithstanding the above, no one shall be precluded from making this filing prior to the completion of an audit. Failure upon the part of the treasurer of any city to comply with the requirements of this section shall be deemed a misdemeanor.
City Financial Management
Financial and Management Policies
According to this “framework” City Financial Policy, Section I.B. (page 2) states that “monthly reports will be provided to Department Heads, Fund Managers and City Council that compare expenditures and revenues to original or amended budgets for the fiscal year-to-date. Explanatory notes will be included, as needed.” Below are examples of such City reports made available on the City website and via links to the City website included here.
Treasurers Statement of Operations here
Treasurer's Cash Reports here
Cash reports are presented to the City Council Monthly
Payroll & Material Claims Report here
Service Level Reports here
No service level reports have been completed since FY2022.
Archived Reports can also be found here
City Financial Policies
Financial Management Policies (2017)
This is the "framework" City Financial Policy established by City Resolution 2017-15. See resolution and policy here.
Purchasing Policies
Rules for making City purchases-part of the City of Pocatello Financial Policies. See the policy here.
Purchase Card Policy (8/12/20)
Guidelines for making City purchases on a purchasing card (City credit card.) See the policy here.
MEMORANDUM: Administrative Matter Policy (01/05/2018)
Rules for determining what qualifies as administrative matters versus requires council approval. See the policy here.
Capital Improvement Planning Manual - Forms and Instructions (2018)
Information, instructions and forms for City Departments to use regarding preparation of Capital Improvement Plan (CIP). See the Manual here.
The City Financial Policies were last revised in 2017. On 10/14/21, the former CFO reviewed the financial policies one-by-one with the Council to point out contradictions, areas required strengthening, etc. The Council, at the time, agreed to move forward with forming a sub-committee to work on this project. The Mayor agreed to put this on the agenda immediately following the November 2021 election. To date, the Mayor has not followed through with placing this item for discussion on any agenda.
During the FY23 budgeting cycle, on 07/14/22, City Council President Cheatum pointed out to Council that the financial policy is a resolution and said:
"it's a resolution that we don't have to follow."
* The City's Financial Policy Resolution is found on the City's webpage here.
This 10/14/21 clip may shed light on why the Mayor refuses to revisit the Financial Policies and why Council members (who have the authority to call special meetings and were responsible for passing this budget) also ignore discussion of them. We recommend the public watch the full video discussion starting here.
GENERAL FUND – Comprised of the city departments primarily supported by your property tax dollars (Mayor and Council, Finance, City Hall, Building, Community Development, Human Resources, Non-Departmental, Legal, Police, Fire, Animal Services and Parks.)
