City Council Audit Committee Meeting Summary - May 22, 2017
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City Council Audit Committee Meeting Summary - May 22, 2017
This meeting of the City Council's Audit Committee was held on May 22, 2017 (note: the transcript references May 17, 2017, but the official date provided is May 22, 2017). The committee reviewed audit activity, a performance audit, and the status of audit recommendations. Members present included Chair (unidentified), Councilmembers Ricardo Valdivia, Alan Spencer, Tom Hebrank, and others. Staff from multiple city departments attended to answer questions.
Consent Calendar
- The committee approved the records of action from the April 12, 2017 meeting by unanimous consent without discussion.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Martha Walsh, a member of the public, expressed dissatisfaction with the lack of performance audits since 2015. She specifically mentioned the Mission Bay Fund and stated she had been investing in it for about two years and wanted to understand why money was not being allocated appropriately. She urged the committee to examine that fund.
Discussion Items
- Monthly Activity Report (presented by City Auditor Eduardo Luna): Provided updates on issued audits (special event permit process, recommendation follow-up), audits in progress (Excel implementation IT audit, economic development incentives, lifeguard tower construction, etc.), and new staff hires. No action required.
- Performance Audit of Special Event Permit Application Process (presented by Shawnee Pickney and Luis Briseño): The audit found the department invoiced fees correctly (less than 1% exceptions), collected fees per AR 6330, issued permits as required, and conducted environmental reviews per a 2014 lawsuit settlement. The main observation was that invoicing took an average of 63 days after application review began; one recommendation was made to develop a standard billing timeframe. Department Director Carolyn Wormser confirmed staff have addressed the issue with an analyst. Committee members praised the audit and the department.
- Audit Recommendations Follow-Up Report (presented by Danielle Knighton): As of December 31, 2016, there were 169 open recommendations across 44 audit reports. During the period, 43 recommendations were implemented or no longer applicable, leaving 126 to carry forward; 55 of those were past due. Of the 126, 36 were over two years old. One recommendation regarding the Qualcomm stadium was deemed no longer applicable. The committee then reviewed statuses department-by-department, with many departments citing pending technology implementations (e.g., Accela, Ariba) and legal processes as reasons for delays.
Key Outcomes
- The committee accepted the performance audit report and forwarded it to City Council unanimously.
- The committee accepted the recommendation follow-up report and agreed to drop the Qualcomm stadium recommendation (unanimous).
- Various departments provided progress updates; some target dates were revised (e.g., Development Services tied to Accela go-live on June 19, 2017; Purchasing Contracting tied to Ariba go-live on June 12, 2017).
- The committee requested departments to provide more accurate target dates and explanations for delays in future reports.
(Note: The date discrepancy between the transcript and the provided date is noted.)
Meeting Transcript
Today, welcome to the May 17, 2017 meeting of the City Council's Audit Committee. For the record, we have a quorum consistent of auditor committee member Ricardo Valdivia, auditor committee member Alan Spencer, and audit committee member uh Tom Hebrank, as well as uh deputy city attorney Priscilla Grantwell, uh Controller Rolando Charvel, Auditor Eduardo Luna, uh Lisa Byrne from the Independent Budget Analysts, and uh committee consultant Laura Gates. Let's begin with committee records of action for the April 12, 2017 committee meetings. Is there a motion to approve the records of action for the April meeting? Thank you, uh, Mr. Spencer. Uh, do I have a second? Thank you, Mr. Tom. Um if there's no cons uh there are no considered approved by unanimous consent unless there are poll from for discussion. And I see none. Um here no request to pull that three actions, they stand approved. So for now we do have one public comment. Um we have Martha Welsh. Ms. Walsh. Good morning, Martha Welsh. As a member of the public, I don't like to approve these performance audits. I remember what for but in 2015 we had all these audits, but we don't have any more. We voted for a foundant um we voted for that, but we don't get every uh we don't do the that. I'm looking forward to the about for Mission Bay Fund. I've never seen it in the budget last year. You didn't do that. Um I'm I I want to see what you can do with that one because I know about that fund very much. I've I've invented for uh about two years of investing that that that fund because I know it goes on because it uh it I've uh we voted we voted on it last time, and still the parks and everything don't have a they want, so that's if the but we have to find out why the money is thank you, Ms. Walsh. Uh do I have any committee members, controller office, IBA, city attorney, or auditor. Any comments that you might want to make? Not this morning, okay. Uh I have no comments this morning. Are there any requests uh for continuance? Hearing none request to continue, we'll move on to item one. Uh we will hear a presentation on item one, which is the monthly activity reports. I would like to welcome Mr. Eduardo Luna, our city auditor. Thank you for being here today. I will turn it over to you for your presentation. Um good morning, Madam Chair, members of the audit committee at Wardaluna, City Auditor. I'm here to present our monthly activity report since our last meeting. In terms of audit products that we've issued, um, we've issued the audit of the special event permit application process. That audit will be heard later this morning. In addition, we also issued our recommendation follow-up report for the period ending December 31st, 2016, which will also be heard later today. We have two audits that are in the report writing phase. This one includes the audit of boards and commissions. Um we plan to issue this audit report um by June 2nd. The second audit is the capital improvement program focused on quality assurance. Um we provided a draft to the administration. We have scheduled an exit meeting, and we plan to issue this audit um in late June. Audits that are in progress. We have several.
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