Administrative Services Director Tracy Robinson presented the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting for the fiscal year, which ended June 30, 2025, to the Lafayette City Council during its Dec. 8 meeting. 

    Awarded by the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA), whose mission is to promote professional development of individual government’s fiscal resources by identifying and advancing fiscal strategies and policies for public benefit, the Certificate of Achievement is the highest form of recognition in governmental accounting, and this is Lafayette’s 10th year in a row receiving this award.

    The GFOA created the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence program to promote state and local governments to go beyond the minimum requirements of generally accepted accounting principles and to encourage transparency among local governments.

    The city’s annually audited report, the Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, provides detailed financial statements for the city of Lafayette. It is submitted to GFOA for review, where it then recognizes governments that succeed in going beyond minimum requirements. 

    “I think a lot of credit goes to the council for their good fiscal accountability and decisions, and then also the accounting staff who made sure everything is in order,” Robinson said in the meeting. “There are quite a lot of what they call [Governmental Accounting Standards Board] rules that need to be followed, and we do that very well with a small staff.”

    Key standards include mandating reporting on capital assets, infrastructure, and lease agreements, as well as providing useful information to taxpayers and investors.

    “Back when I was in public finance, we would look at two things in the audit,” Council Member Jim Cervantes said. “One was clean opinion, but the second was the certificate, which told us that the public agency was doing the right stuff in terms of financial management.”