The Centennial Water Board of Directors has established financial policies for fund balances and transfers, investments, purchasing guidelines and compensation. The main reasons for establishing financial policies are to:

• Establish broad goals to guide government decision making
• Develop approaches to achieve goals
• Develop a budget consistent with approaches to achieve goals
• Evaluate performance and make adjustments

Budget Procedures

Centennial Water’s budget procedures shall comply with local government budget law of Colorado as outlined in Colorado Revised Statues (C.R.S.) Title 29 Article 1 Part 1 Budget Services Part 1, for the preparation, consideration, adoption execution and audit of the Centennial Water & Sanitation District annual budget.

Rate and Fee Policy

The Centennial Water Board has identified the following key items to be addressed when establishing rates and fees:

• The Water Service Availability Charge, which is assessed against all customers based on meter size, will be sufficient to meet the annual cost of water related debt service, cost of providing the periodic billing services, the cost of meter replacement, and a portion of funding the Reserve Fund.
• The Wastewater Service Availability Charge, which is assessed against all customers based on meter size, will be sufficient to meet the annual cost of wastewater related debt service and a portion of funding the Reserve Fund.
• The water and wastewater consumption rates are designed to cover the cost of the annual operations. Two year budget projections are prepared in order to stabilize the rate requirements and avoid dramatic single year increases whenever possible.
• Capacity fees are designed to recover the cost of capital as defined by the District’s Facility Plan.

Investments Policy

Colorado state statutes specify investment instruments meeting defined risk criteria in which units of local government may invest. Centennial Water has adopted an Investment Policy that is more restrictive than the state statutes.

Purchasing Guidelines

Purchasing Guidelines are intended to ensure that purchases are made in accordance with good business practices while streamlining the amount of paperwork wherever possible.