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INDIAN RIVER COUNTY, FLORIDA NOTES TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS Year Ended September 30, 1990 1. Summary of Significant Accounting Policies: Indian River County, Florida (the "County") is a political subdivision of the State of Florida. It is governed by an elected Board of County Commissioners (the "Board") which is governed by state statutes and regulations. In addition to the members of the Board, there are five elected Constitutional Officers: Clerk of the Circuit Court, Sheriff, Tax Collector, Property Appraiser, and Supervisor of Elections. The Constitutional Officers maintain separate accounting records and budgets. The accompanying financial statements present the combined financial position and combined results of operations of the various fund types and account groups and the changes in financial position of the proprietary fund types for the funds controlled by the Board and the County's Constitutional Officers. The Board funds a portion or, in certain instances, all of the operating budgets of the County's Constitutional Officers. The payments by the Board to fund the opera- tions of the Constitutional Officers are recorded as operating transfers out on the financial statements of the Board and as operating transfers in or charges for services on the financial statements of the Constitutional Officers. Accordingly, such amounts and the budget relating to those amounts have been eliminated in the accompanying combined financial statements. The accounting policies of the County conform to generally accepted accounting principles, as applicable to governments. The following is a summary of the more significant policies. A. Reporting Entity - Generally accepted accounting principles require that finan- cial operations of governmental departments, agencies, commissions or authori- ties over which the governmental unit's elected officials have oversight respon- sibility be included in the reporting entity's financial statements. Criteria used to determine if an agency should be included in the County's report were the oversight responsibility and the scope of public service. Oversight responsibility implies that an agency is dependent on another. The manifestations of oversight responsibility are financial interdependency, selection of governing authority, designation of management, ability to significantly influence operations, and accountability for fiscal matters. The manifestations of scope of public service are whether the activity is for the benefit of the reporting entity and/or its residents and whether the activity is conducted within the geographic boundaries of the reporting entity and is generally available to the citizens of that entity. 13