Menifee ranks as Top City in Southwest Riverside County for fiscal health by California State Auditor

Recent data released by the California State Auditor’s Office highlights through a transparent interface dashboard, rankings of cities in California by their overall fiscal health.  The tool, launched in 2019, ranks more than 470 California cities based on detailed information about their fiscal health and whether a city is at risk for fiscal distress.  Menifee ranked 381 (scoring 90.9 out of 100- lowest risk) as the “top city” in Southwest Riverside County or lowest financial risk, beating out all of its neighbors in relation to its financial reserves, debt burden, cash position/liquidity, revenue trends, and retirement obligations.

The third-party municipal health expert (State Auditor) input- established the rankings on the dashboard, based on an advisory panel made up of experts in municipal fiscal health, including the Public Policy Institute of California, the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS), California Policy Center, S&P Global Rating Services as well as an advisor to the California Society of Municipal Finance Officers and the League of California Cities, and a professor at the Daniel J. Evans School of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Washington.

Menifee’s lowest risk ranking for fiscal health in Southwest Riverside County is a testament to the efforts put forth by Menifee City Council, City Finance staff, transparency policies established in the City, and the Quality of Life -Measure DD, which together- all work to ensure the fiscal responsibility, health, and stability of Menifee is a priority.

This accolade comes just weeks after the City of Menifee received its 10th Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting from the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA). This accomplishment marks the 10th year receiving this prestigious award, the highest form of recognition in governmental accounting and financial reporting, and released their “MenifeeOPEN” initiative with the city’s municipal cloud-based dashboard for city core accounting functionality (expenditures, revenues, etc.), state-of-the-art budgeting,  flexible reporting, analytics, licensing, and projects portal financial management system for residents to view how Menifee is doing and track progress.

“It is wonderful to be able to share with the community the continued recognition our city is receiving for the efforts of visibility, openness, and accountability to our financial operations,” said City Manager Armando G. Villa. “Our team is continuously looking for ways to evolve as a growing city, and align for the greatest impacts on citizen engagement, communication, and database decision making and transparency, with financial transparency one of the first major priorities.”

For more information on the California State Auditors Report and Dashboard, please visit California State Auditor - Local Government High Risk Dashboard. To view the most recent Menifee Comprehensive Annual Financial Report visit Financial Reports | City of Menifee.