Budget and Audit Committee Meeting – February 4, 2020
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Budget and Audit Committee Meeting – February 4, 2020
The Budget and Audit Committee of the Sacramento City Council met on Tuesday, February 4, 2020, at 3:00 p.m. in the City Hall Council Chamber. Vice Chair Eric Guerra presided, joined by Councilmembers Rick Jennings and Jay Schenirer; Mayor Darrell Steinberg was absent. The meeting lasted approximately 30 minutes, concluding at 3:30 p.m. The committee considered two items: the City Auditor’s Activity Report for the second quarter of Fiscal Year 2019/20 on the consent calendar, and the City Auditor’s Proposed Audit Plan for Fiscal Year 2020/21 on the discussion calendar.
Consent Calendar
- Item 1 – City Auditor’s Activity Report for the 2nd Quarter of Fiscal Year 2019/20: Adopted unanimously (3–0). The motion accepted the report and forwarded it to the City Council for final approval.
Public Comments & Testimony
- No members of the public spoke on either agenda item or on matters not on the agenda.
Discussion Items
- Item 2 – City Auditor’s Proposed Audit Plan for Fiscal Year 2020/21: City Auditor Jorge Oseguera presented the proposed work plan, which included audits in progress (e.g., green efforts, cannabis business permitting, code enforcement, Roberts Family Development Center, downtown streets team, emergency medical services) and audits carried over from the prior year (e.g., parks operations, maintenance services, police investigations, IT, recycling/solid waste). He also noted a postponed audit of animal care services due to staff departure.
- Councilmember Schenirer asked for specificity in audit scopes, focusing on whether the city asks the right questions in RFPs and monitors spending effectively. He expressed concern about the office’s capacity given the large workload and suggested putting the financial conditions review on hold until after a March 10 presentation by management partners on a financial model, to avoid duplication. He also recommended that the auditor’s office leave 5–10% capacity for unanticipated projects.
- Councilmember Jennings inquired about proactive vendor audits. He noted that current contracts do not require vendors to submit periodic audits and suggested exploring a policy to include audit requirements in contracts. He also asked about how postponed audits are prioritized (they move to priority one the following year).
- Vice Chair Guerra summarized the committee’s sense: (1) the financial conditions review should be delayed until after the management partners presentation; (2) the city should explore a clear policy on audit requirements in contracts and possibly require vendors to submit past audits; (3) the committee might consider adding a new FTE to increase audit capacity when FY2020/21 budget discussions begin; (4) the auditor should include a feedback loop in contract audits; (5) the committee would like a dedicated meeting to review cannabis audit efforts; and (6) the auditor should coordinate the timing of the audit plan’s council submission after the management partners meeting.
Key Outcomes
- Motion on Item 2: Moved by Councilmember Schenirer, seconded by Councilmember Jennings, to accept the City Auditor’s Proposed Audit Plan for FY 2020/21 and forward it to the City Council with the following amendments discussed: (a) defer the financial conditions review until after the management partners presentation (anticipated in March); (b) continue discussion on vendor audit policies and possible FTE addition during budget talks; and (c) schedule a future Budget and Audit Committee meeting focusing on cannabis audit efforts. The motion passed unanimously (3–0).
- Next Steps: The amended audit plan will be forwarded to the full City Council for final approval. The committee will also follow up on the vendor audit policy and capacity issues in upcoming meetings.
Meeting Transcript
Okay, we're gonna go ahead and convene this uh committee meeting of the budget and audit uh meeting on Tuesday, February 4th at 3 o'clock p.m. If the clerk please call the royal roll. Thank you, Councilmember Jennings, Councilmember Shane, Councilmember Guerra. Here and for the record, Mayor Steinberg will be absent. Thank you. First item is your consent calendar, and you have one item, the city auditors activity report for the second quarter of fiscal year 2019-2020. Uh, do we have any members of the public senate to speak? We do not. Is there a motion from the motion? It's been moved by council member Jennings. Second of a council member Shaneer. Uh all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed. Okay. Consent. Calendar passes. All right, madam clerks. Next item. The second item is your discussion calendar. Item number two is the city auditors' proposed audit plan for fiscal year 2020-2021. Good afternoon, members of the budget and audit committee. Jorge Seguera, your city auditor. The recommendation does it that is before you is that you pass a motion accepting the city auditors audit plan for fiscal year 2020-2021, and that you forward to the city council for final approval. As we've done in our prior years, we've gone through a process of uh trying to identify areas for us to audit in the upcoming fiscal year. That includes conducting a citywide risk assessment, uh making inquiries into management and into our elected officials as to what might be areas of interest for us to focus our audit efforts on. And based on the information that we received and the analysis that we conducted, we're proposing the following items as our work plan for fiscal year two thousand twenty twenty-one. The audits that are currently in progress in progress are as follows. We're doing an audit of uh green efforts, uh, we're doing an audit of cannabis business permitting, we're looking at code the code enforcement division. We also recently initiated an audit of the Roberts Family Development Center. We're also looking at the downtown streets team, and we're looking at uh the emergency medical services. We did initiate an audit of animal care services, but that audit is now being postponed as a result of one of my staff uh resigning to uh watch over her uh recently born child. Please wish her congratulations. Thank you. Yes, I will. The one that's postponed is the animal care services audio. Yes, we'll do beautiful baby boy doing very well. Yes. Uh audits that are being carried over from the prior year are an audits of uh parks operations. We're also gonna be looking at maintenance services division, the office of investigations within the police department, um, the accounting division within the finance department finance department, uh, the information technology uh department, and uh recycling and solid waste. We also have on our list an uh a review of cannabis management and uh the security and emergency preparedness of the utilities department, body worn cameras within the police department, and uh procurement services for the utilities department. Are reviewing the building division within the community development department and citywide grants management for our research and analysis division? Uh we noted in our proposed plan that we are currently looking at the 2020 community survey. We're also uh going to be doing our 2020 employee diversity, equity and inclusion report. Uh annual reviews that we do will be the 2021 community survey, the 2021 employee diversity and equity and inclusion report. We're gonna uh review the ethics commission and the police commission. Also, under the research and analysis uh division, we're gonna plan to look at conducting a financial conditions review, which is something that we're already engaged in right now. Uh we would like to do a risk assessment of the city's revenue sources and an audit of the transient occupancy tax. I believe that's a full plate for us. Uh it will keep us busy for the remainder of this year and well into the next fiscal year.
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