Comprehensive Annual Financial Report 2020

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The government -wide financial statements include not only the County itself (known as the primary government), but also the Department of Water Supply, a legally separate entity that the County is financially accountable for. Financial information for this component unit is reported separately from the financial information presented for the primary government itself. Fund Financial Statements The fund financial statements are designed to report information about groupings of related accounts which are used to maintain control over resources that have been segregated for specific activities or objectives. The County, like other state and local governments, uses fund accounting to ensure and demonstrate compliance with finance -related legal requirements. All of the funds of the County can be divided into the following three categories: governmental funds, proprietary funds, and fiduciary funds. Governmental funds. Governmental funds are used to account for essentially the same functions reported as governmental activities in the government -wide financial statements — i.e., most of the County's basic services are reported in governmental funds. These statements, however, focus on (1) how cash and other financial assets can readily be converted to available resources and (2) the balances left at year-end that are available for spending. Such information may be useful in determining what financial resources are available in the near future to finance the County's programs. Because the focus of governmental funds is narrower than that of the government -wide financial statements, it is useful to compare the information presented for governmental funds with similar information presented for governmental activities in the government -wide financial statements. By doing so, readers may better understand the long-term impact of the government's near-term financing decisions. Both the governmental funds balance sheet and the governmental funds statement of revenues, expenditures, and changes in fund balances provide a reconciliation to facilitate this comparison between governmental funds and governmental activities. The County maintains several individual governmental funds organized according to their type (general, special revenue, debt service, and capital projects). Information is presented separately in the governmental funds balance sheet and in the governmental funds statement of revenues, expenditures, and changes in fund balances for the general fund and capital projects fund, which are considered to be major funds. Data from the remaining governmental funds are combined into a single, aggregated presentation. Individual fund data for each of the non -major governmental funds is provided in the form of combining statements elsewhere in this report. The County adopts an annual appropriated budget for its general fund and special revenue funds. A budgetary comparison statement has been provided for these funds to demonstrate compliance with this budget. The budgetary comparison statement for the general fund is located in the basic financial statements, whereas the budgetary comparison schedules for the nonma jor special revenue funds are presented elsewhere in this report. Proprietary funds. Proprietary funds are generally used to account for services for which the County charges outside customers. Proprietary funds provide the same type of information as shown in the government -wide financial statements, only in more detail. The County maintains only one type of proprietary funds, enterprise funds. Enterprise funds are used to report the same functions presented as business -type activities in the government - wide financial statements. The County uses enterprise funds to account for the operations of the Kulaimano Elderly Housing Project and the Ouli Ekahi Affordable Housing Project. _15-