I am proud to report that the City of Irvine has been ranked as the No. 1 City in the United States in Fiscal Strength by Truth in Accounting (TIA), a nonprofit organization that “cuts through politicization and accounting tricks, presenting transparent and nonpartisan figures of government finances.”

According to TIA, “it is imperative to provide an honest accounting of each city’s financial condition. Therefore, we developed a sophisticated model to analyze all the assets and liabilities of the nation’s 75 most populous cities, including unreported liabilities.”

Based on their thorough ans nonpartisan analysis, Truth in Accounting ranked Irvine as the most fiscally healthy large city in the United States.

You can read the Truth in Accounting report, “The Fiscal States of the Cities,” here. 

The Truth in Accounting report comes at a crucial time as the City of Irvine begins to apply several increases in fiscal responsibility and government transparency that I strongly urged and supported — a two-year budget in the context of a comprehensive five-year financial plan and an Irvine Sunshine Ordinance that expands review time of all regular agenda items to 12 days.

Recently, in addition to the No. 1 ranking from Truth in Accounting, the City of Irvine has been awarded national and state awards this year for its budget team: The Distinguished Budget Presentation Award by the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada represents the highest form of recognition in government budgeting for a municipal entity, and the Excellence Award for Fiscal Year 2018-19 Operating Budget was presented to Irvine by the California Society of Municipal Finance Officers.

Irvine is used to winning awards for fiscal responsibility and transparency. We were also ranked No. 1 by Truth in Accounting in 2018.

Also last year, the City of Irvine received the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting for the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report from the Government Finance Officers Association , as well as two other prestigious awards: The GFOA Distinguished Budget Presentation Award representing the City’s commitment in meeting the highest principles of governmental budgeting, and the California Society of Municipal Finance Officers Award for Excellence in Operational Budget.

In addition, I received the Orange County Taxpayers Watchdog Award from Orange County Auditor-Controller Eric H. Woollery in 2017, along with Mayor Don Wagner and Councilmember Christina Shea.

I am extremely proud of these awards. But much more important to me is the fact that our City is truly serving its residents with fiscal responsibility and transparency.

I ran for City Council on a platform of using my skills as a business attorney to safeguard every public dollar, and I have kept that promise by making sure that Irvine is financially transparent and doesn’t spend more than it can afford.

I have made it my mission to make our City’s budget truly transparent and free from any obfuscations or accounting tricks.

These awards reflect the commitment that I’ve made to the taxpayers and residents of Irvine, and to the principles of government transparency and fiscal responsibility.

Government transparency and fiscal responsibility should be neither a conservative nor a liberal idea, but appeal to both, as we strive to address increasing social needs with limited resources.