Budget and Audit Committee Meeting - June 2, 2020
STREAMING COPY IN PREPARATION — RECORDING AVAILABLE FROM THE ORIGINAL SOURCE
Budget and Audit Committee Meeting – June 2, 2020
The Budget and Audit Committee of the Sacramento City Council met via teleconference on June 2, 2020, at 2:00 p.m. to consider two items related to the City Auditor’s reports. The meeting was chaired by Mayor Darrell Steinberg and included members Schenirer, Guerra, and Jennings. Both items were approved unanimously and forwarded to the full City Council. The meeting also included public comment on police response to protests and a brief discussion of upcoming CARES Act fund distribution.
Consent Calendar
- Item 1 – City Auditor’s Whistleblower Hotline Activity Report (October 2019 – March 2020): The committee accepted the report and forwarded it to the City Council for final approval. The motion was made by Member Schenirer, seconded by Member Jennings, with all members voting yes.
Discussion Items
- Item 2 – City Auditor’s Activity Report for the 3rd Quarter of Fiscal Year 2019/2020: City Auditor Jorge Oseguera presented highlights including the completion of the Management Partners innovation and efficiency review, follow-up analysis of city vacancies, and ongoing audits of green efforts, Roberts Family Development Center, downtown streets, cannabis permitting, and diversity, equity, and inclusion. He also noted work on a COVID-19 regulatory framework.
- Councilmember Guerra raised concerns about survey language inclusivity, specifically for Southeast Asian populations, and requested that the broader survey include additional languages beyond English and Spanish. The Auditor agreed to add languages if desired by the council.
- Councilmember Jennings inquired about the status of the cannabis permitting audit and requested that future audits examine other tiers of the cannabis industry (logistics, warehousing, cultivation, manufacturing, lab testing). The Auditor reported good collaboration with city departments and that a draft report is in progress.
- The committee passed a motion (Guerra/Schenirer, all yes) to accept the report and forward to the City Council.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Robert Rendon, a Sacramento resident from Midtown, commented on the Sacramento Police Department’s response to peaceful protests over the previous nights. He stated that the first two nights were handled poorly and that the city had not addressed the issue. Mayor Steinberg invited him to provide more detail to his office.
Key Outcomes
- Both agenda items were approved unanimously by the committee and forwarded to the full City Council for final approval.
- Mayor Steinberg noted the committee's ongoing work on developing criteria for distributing $10 million in CARES Act funds for small business and $2 million for youth funding, with discussion expected at upcoming meetings.
- The committee adjourned at 2:16 p.m.
Meeting Transcript
Okay. Meeting of the City Council's budget and audit committee will come to order. Please call the roll. Councilmember Jennings. Here. Council Margata. Here. Councilmember Shineer. Here. And Mayor Steinberg. I am here. Members, we have a couple of items to take up this afternoon. Both involving our city auditor. And one is the whistleblower hotline activity report. The other is the city auditors activity report for the third quarter. Why don't we take them together? If they do they require votes, Madam Clerk? Yes, they both require votes. The consent calendar is the whistleblower hotline. I think that's okay. That is I'm happy to move the consent calendar, Mayor. Mayor, Mayor Jennings. I mean, Councilmember Jennings. Hey, Mayor Jennings, that sounds good to me. Um all in favor. Councilmember Jennings. Hi. Hi. Commissioner. All right. And there's Steinberg. Aye. That's very good. The consent calendar is passed. We do now have one item. Thank you, and that is the activity report for the third quarter of fiscal year 1920. Mr. Auditor. Good afternoon, Mayor and members of the budget and audit committee. Jorge Seguera, your city auditor. The recommendation that is before you is to pass a motion accepting the city auditors' activity report for the third quarter of fiscal year 2019-20. And forward to the full city council for final approval. Some of the highlights that we'd like to note from this report is that as you well know, we did complete the management partners uh innovation and efficiency review. And as part of a follow-up to that, we worked with city management to uh further analyze the city's vacancies, which was presented to the mayor and city council a few weeks ago. Uh a few of our audits that are currently ongoing and have reached the final phase of report writing are our audits of the city's green efforts, our audits of the Roberts Family Development Center, as well as our audit of the downtown streets. We are also in report writing for our audit of the cannabis permitting, and we are in report writing for our audit of diversity equity and inclusion. Some of the work that we've been involved in in response to our COVID-19 pandemic is that we have worked with our attorney's office in helping to develop a regulatory framework for the mayor and council to approve. Um yeah, just Jorge, thank you. On the survey, um, some of the Southeast Asian populations that are you know fairly numerous in the city. Obviously, that's not English or Spanish to a lot of them.
openpublica.com