Saint Paul Audit Committee Meeting - June 16, 2026: Data Practices Study and Audit Topic Selection
Saint Paul Audit Committee Meeting - June 16, 2026
The Audit Committee met on Tuesday, June 16, 2026, at 4:00 PM in City Hall, 3rd Floor. The meeting included a presentation of the Data Practices Study report by Dr. Heather Britt of Wilder Research and a review of potential future audit topics by community advisors. The committee received and filed both agenda items and agreed to further consultations before finalizing the selection of three audit topics for the City Council.
Consent Calendar
- SR 26-122: Data Practices Study Report and Presentation - Dr. Heather Britt, Wilder Research. Received and filed.
- SR 26-123: Topics Review - Community Advisors Jeremy Lostetter, Stephanie Dilworth, and Noah McVay. Received and filed.
Discussion Items
- Data Practices Study Report: Dr. Britt presented findings from a comprehensive study of the city's public data request process. Key points included: 75,000+ requests from 2022-2025, with year-over-year growth; average close time improved from 20 days to 12 days, but with wide variation (median 4 days); 95% of requests are for the Police Department; recommendations include better use of the GovQA platform, structured intake processes, citywide procedures, staff training, proactive data disclosure, and periodic technology review. Dr. Britt noted that the city's challenges are consistent with peer jurisdictions. Feedback on the draft report is due by June 19, 2026, with a final version expected June 30.
- Topic Selection for Future Audits: Community advisors presented a rubric-based ranking of five potential audit topics: (1) Business Licensing and Building Code Operations (combined, due to both being in DSI), (2) College Savings Accounts, (3) District Council Reform, (4) Street Maintenance and Potholes. The subcommittee recommended combining the two DSI topics and proposed three slots for audits in late 2026 and 2027. Discussion ensued about the merits of each topic. Members expressed strong support for DSI and potholes audits as core city functions. District Council Reform was seen as responsive to district council requests and important for understanding their operations. College Savings Accounts raised questions about scope and whether it might be better addressed through a departmental self-assessment or informal review rather than a full audit. The committee debated whether to finalize the three topics at this meeting or gather more information from department directors and Dr. Britt on feasibility and timelines. Councilmember Noecker suggested postponing the final decision to the July meeting after conducting those consultations. The committee also discussed the possibility of requesting a self-assessment from the Office of Financial Empowerment for the College Savings Accounts program if that topic is not selected for audit.
Key Outcomes
- Both agenda items (SR 26-122 and SR 26-123) were received and filed by unanimous consent.
- The committee did not make a final decision on the three audit topics to recommend to the City Council. Instead, it agreed to:
- Conduct follow-up consultations with relevant department directors (e.g., DSI, Public Works) and Dr. Heather Britt to assess the scope and timeline of each proposed audit.
- Explore the possibility of a self-assessment by departments for some topics (e.g., College Savings Accounts) as an alternative to a full audit.
- Return in July 2026 with a finalized list of three recommended topics for council approval.
Meeting Transcript
The St. Paul City Council added committee to order. Roll call, please. CM Coleman. Here. CM Johnson. Here. Committee member Dilworth. Here. Committee member Lostner. Here. Committee member McVay. Committee member Donnelly. Here. Chair Naker? Here. All right. Uh, welcome everyone to our June audit committee meeting. Happy summer. Um, we have a packed agenda today. We have two items. One is the um semi-final report from our last audit committee, uh, pending our thoughts and potential revisions. And then uh we have we're moving straight into topic review for our next topic. So we just never never take a moment's pause here at audit committee. So uh we'll welcome back Dr. Britt to take us away. And like we were just saying, I think we're gonna try to get 30 minutes, 30 minutes if we can. Um, so we'll see what we can do. All right, sounds good. Fantastic. Uh well, thanks, everybody. Uh, and appreciate your patience with us as it relates to our timeline. Um, so I have a couple of intentions today. I'm gonna do the sort of walkthrough of the presentation that you had attached in the agenda. Um, uh, I'm happy to take questions as part of the presentation, happy to take broader questions. Um, and then I'm just gonna invite you to continue, oops, sorry, uh, continue that feedback process, right? So written feedback that you want to offer um through Nia to us. We'll continue to take that. Um, Mia has invited us today to have some specific conversations with her and with Greg and with Nicole and with some of the sort of city attorney um team, uh, so that we can get some additional feedback as it relates to the report. So we're still striving for a June thirty final version, but I think if we need to push that because we're still receiving some feedback to you all, if you're like, you know what, I can't make the 19th, but I can make the, you know, insert date that's between the 19th and the 30th, we'll continue to take that feedback and do that final full pass to make sure what you get is the final edited version of what we've got available. And as you know, since we're in long-term relationship with each other, we are here and around. So happy to continue to do additional work that you might need. So, maybe I'll just open by saying a giant thank you to Nia, as always, and a giant thank you to Greg, who spent a lot of time with us walking through the GovQA system, spent a lot of time with us back and forth as it relates to folks that we might survey, um, did a lot of back and forth other as it relates to um just city rules about getting surveys inside the walls of the city system. So um, so I think just want to say an incredible thank you. You all are fantastic team for us to work with. So, uh, so I'm gonna go ahead and get started, but I will say, you know, pause me along the way as we are as we are making our way through this. All right, so we're gonna talk a little bit about background and purpose. Just a quick reminder, those research questions, the methods, so the kinds of things that we did to amass all of the pieces and parts for this. We'll talk a little bit about that GovQ8 platform itself, some of the things that we know from taking a look at that platform and taking a look at that data. We're gonna talk a little bit about those conversations with the staff, conversations with peer jurisdictions, and I'll say sort of other folks, League of Minnesota Cities, Office of the State Auditor, the Data Practices Office.
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