10-25-04 Regular Meeting of La Porte Audit Committee

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I� IGoals for Beautification: ❖ Improve the community character to make it a more desirable place to live, work, and visit. ❖ Improve the aesthetic visual environment through enhancement of site design, signage, roadways,parking areas, open space, and landscaping. ❖ Invest in Downtown to establish a vibrant mix of places to work, live, and visit, with shops, restaurants, entertainment, and a variety of dwelling units. Redevelopment Strategy. Urban redevelopment efforts require cooperative action to encourage ' new and sustained private investment and to provide supporting rehabilitation of public infrastructure. A key part of the process is determining what strategic actions the community should take to achieve its redevelopment goals and objectives. Successful redevelopment will often require cooperation and coordination between agencies at different levels of government as well as non-profit community organizations. This should include coordination of physical improvements with social service programs, which aim to enhance the health and economic capacity of residents in targeted neighborhoods. Redevelopment Goals: ❖ Stabilize and improve the quality of neighborhoods and other areas in decline by attracting renewed private investment activity. ❖ Revitalize the City's historic downtown area. Cash management policies and practices. Cash temporarily idle during the year was invested in demand deposits and obligations of the U.S. Treasury. The maturities of the investments range from 30 days to 2 years, with an average maturity of 8 months. The average yield on investments was 1.35% for the government. Investment income includes appreciation in the fair value of investments. Increases in fair value during the current year, however, do not necessarily represent trends that will continue; nor is it always possible to realize such amounts, especially in the case of temporary changes in the fair value of investments that the City intends to hold to maturity. Pension and other post employment benefits. The City of La Porte sponsors a cost sharing multiple employer pension plan for its emergency services personnel. Each year, an independent actuary engaged by the pension plan calculates the amount of the annual contribution that the City ' of La Porte must make to the pension plan to ensure that the plan will be able to fully meets its obligations to retired employees on a timely basis. 1 The City of La Porte also provides pension benefits for its non emergency services employees. These benefits are provided through a state-wide plan managed by Texas Municipal Retirement System (TMRS). The City of La Porte has no obligation in connection with employee benefits offered through this plan beyond its annual contractual payment to TMRS. The City of La Porte also provides postretirement health and dental care benefits for certain retirees and their dependents. As of the end of the current fiscal year, there were 49 retired employees receiving these benefits. Additional information on the City of La Porte's pension arrangements and post employment benefits can be found in Notes 6 and 11 in the notes to the financial statements. 1 VA