Audit Committee Meeting - April 29, 2015: Contract Oversight, Auditor Compensation, and Budget Review
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Audit Committee Meeting - April 29, 2015
The San Diego Audit Committee met on April 29, 2015, to discuss citywide contract oversight, the city auditor's compensation, the FY16 budget, and recommendation follow-up status. The committee approved several items, including a salary increase for the city auditor and a recommendation to add an IT auditor.
Consent Calendar
- Approval of committee action items and minutes from the April 8 meeting by unanimous consent.
Public Comments & Testimony
- S. Clive Richard (public speaker) requested a policy or procedure for handling complaints against the Office of the City Auditor, urging the committee to adopt one if it does not exist.
- S. Clive Richard (on auditor compensation) argued that the city auditor is underpaid compared to peers in San Jose and Dallas, and urged the committee to increase compensation to reflect the value of the office.
Discussion Items
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Citywide Contract Oversight Audit (Item 4):
- Presented by Danielle Knighton (audit manager) and Steve Gomez. The audit focused on contract administration risks, finding insufficient controls, lack of standardized processes, and non-implementation of vendor debarment. Key findings: (1) City cannot determine total contractual commitments or compliance; (2) contract modification and closeout processes need standardization and automation; (3) vendor debarment process not implemented (only 4 companies debarred since 1996, 68.4% of survey respondents unaware of the process). Nine recommendations were made. Management (Ron V., Deputy COO) acknowledged the findings and began corrective actions, including SAP enhancements. Committee members expressed concern about potential financial losses and requested a follow-up audit examining specific contracts. The committee voted to forward the report to City Council with a request for a six-month progress update and a follow-up audit on financial impacts.
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Monthly Activity Report (Item 1): Submitted by Eduardo Luna (City Auditor). Reported two audit products issued (contract oversight and recommendation follow-up), three in report writing, five in progress, two to start. Also noted the ALGA national conference in San Diego.
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City Auditor's Accomplishments July 2013–December 2014 (Item 2): Highlighted 24 performance audits, 2 agreed-upon procedures, 6 hotline investigations, 105 recommendations with 100% management agreement—a first. Received five consecutive awards and improved fraud hotline outreach.
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Recommendation Follow-Up Status (Item 3): Presented by Danielle Knighton. As of Dec 31, 2014, 152 open recommendations across 49 reports. 46 implemented or no longer applicable, 106 carrying forward. Notable: 42 recommendations in process over two years old. Committee discussed lengthy delays (e.g., Qualcomm from 2009, Housing Commission from 2010, City Treasurer delinquent accounts). Committee requested a monthly update on implementation progress and a special report on recommendations from 2009–2011 by July meeting. Also requested addition of original target dates, modification history, priority classification, and OCA concurrence on reasonableness in future reports. Motion passed unanimously.
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Annual Compensation Discussion for City Auditor (Item 5): Hadi Ghani (Personnel Director) presented salary comparisons with 22 other agencies. Committee members noted the city auditor (Eduardo Luna) has not received a base salary increase since 2007, despite expanded duties (fraud hotline, outside audit oversight, ballot measure fiscal impact). Committee considered private sector benchmarks from headhunters (Robert Half, VACO) indicating market rate higher. After discussion, motion to increase salary from $168,000 to $180,000 (with fringe) passed unanimously.
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FY16 Budget for City Auditor (Item 6): Proposed budget $3.72 million, up $146,000 from FY15. Includes 21 FTEs. The mayor's proposal omitted a requested IT auditor position (cost $129,300 including fringe). Committee discussed the need for IT audit coverage given city's legacy systems and sensitive data. Members suggested offsetting the cost by reducing non-personnel expenses (e.g., contracts). Motion to adopt the budget with two modifications: adjust auditor salary to $180,000 plus fringe, and recommend addition of IT auditor at up to $129,301. Passed unanimously.
Key Outcomes
- Contract Oversight Audit: Forwarded to City Council with a request for a six-month progress update and a follow-up audit on financial impacts of identified risks.
- Recommendation Follow-Up: Accepted the report, dropped two no-longer-applicable recommendations, and requested monthly updates on implementation progress and a special report on 2009–2011 recommendations by July 2015 meeting.
- City Auditor Compensation: Approved a salary increase from $168,000 to $180,000 (plus fringe) to be recommended to City Council.
- FY16 Budget: Adopted with modifications: auditor salary adjustment to $180,000 and recommendation to add an IT auditor position (up to $129,301). To be forwarded to City Council for approval.
- Next Meeting: Scheduled for June 3, 2015, at 9:00 AM.
Meeting Transcript
Perfect. Uh April 29th, 215 minute the audit committee. We have uh looks like we have everybody with us today. We have Eduardo Luna, our city auditor, Carly Schreiner, committee member, and Mr. Hebrink. Rolanda Cravell from the Comptroller's Office. Lisa's here, good from the IBA. Mara from the City Attorney's Office, Council Member Zap, and Committee Member Ricardo. And you also, if you notice, we have a new committee consultant with us today, Jack Straw, who we're all used to and did an exemplary job, has moved up the ladder within the office and is now my deputy chief. So we have Riley Webb with us here today, who's been in my office for a while doing policy, been doing a great job, and I think he is more than suited to the task at hand. So welcome aboard. With that, we need to move on. Uh approval of committee action items, uh, minutes for the April eighth meeting. Do we have any corrections? Anyone have any comment? And we'll do that by unanimous consent. Perfect. Non-agenda public comment. It looks like we have one speaker today, Mr. S. Clive Richard. Good morning, sir. Got three minutes. Thank you. I was looking through papers and trying to find um a policy or procedure of how this committee handles complaints against the office of the city auditor. I actually couldn't find anything. I'd like to see it. And I'd hope that it does exist. And if it doesn't exist, I would hope that you finally adopt something. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Richard. And that is the only non-agenda public comment speaker we have for today. Any comment from staff, committee members? Seeing none, we will move on. We actually are going to kind of go out of order today to accommodate people's schedules in different departments and those types of things. So we're going to jump into item number four first. And we'll go ahead and get started on that presentation. And this is a report from a city auditor regarding citywide contract oversight. Welcome. Good morning, Chairman Faulkner. And uh sorry, Chairman Sherman. Coffee hasn't hit yet. And audit committee members. My name is Danielle Knighton, and I am the audit manager for this particular audit. I would like to take a moment to thank the team that worked on this particular audit, uh, Steve Gomez, Megan Garth, and Eric Arleson. And I'd also like to thank PNC, public works contracting, field engineering, all the contract administrators who participated in our survey, and the administration for providing their valuable time during the course of this audit. I will now turn the presentation over to Steve. In accordance with our fiscal 2015 work plan, we conducted an audit of the contract oversight focusing on contract administration. Our audit focused on the risks related to the decentralization of contract administration functions.
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