Recommendation to Accept the Fiscal Year 2017-18 Audited Financial Statements and Compliance Reports. [City Council/SACIC] (Finance 2410)
Thank you. I just have to. Basic questions and that has to do with the the exhibit seven which which was the memorandum of internal controls. And within that memorandum, there is a section called 2018 Dash three Purchasing Policy Compliance. And in that section, there are two sentence, two paragraphs. One, which went one payment was comprised of three vendor invoices totaling 1700 dollars that were individually below the threshold requiring a contract. But the city used the vendor throughout the fiscal year for various repairs. And cumulatively, those small contracts cumulatively totaled $129,800. And in a separate item, there was something similar where a vendor did work for 1300 dollars. But cumulatively, when you add it up, all the different contracts, cumulatively the amount of money spent on the second vendor was roughly to $296,000. So the basic question is, oh, by the way, for for purposes of background, for for the public. In these situations are called out within the memorandum of internal control because the city has a policy that requires the city as a council to sign off on certain contracts. And the the sign off occurs when a certain threshold occurs. But a dollar threshold, when that dollar threshold is exceeded, the council has to approve it. But in these instances, the memorandum is pointing out just two instances where someone has these very, very small contracts that if you look at it individually, you know, it doesn't surpass the threshold. But when you add them all together, suddenly it's a lot of money. So the question I have is, uh. Are we implementing fixes so that something like this doesn't happen again? And is that in place now? Elena Darrah, finance director for the City. So, yes, we are attempting to fix it. There's a number of issues. At hand here. One, we have quite a few brand new personnel which we need to train them the new on existing policies. We also are aware that our current purchasing policy is not exactly up. To up to par and we do need to revise it. Unfortunately, even though we do know it, we have had other projects in place that take higher priority and that has not happened. The third item I would say currently there is nothing in the city right. Now that we can use in terms of technology without manual work from staff to track each individual vendors as to how we. How much we actually pay in total. Nor is there a policy. Or practice to determine, well, is it a rolling 12. Months? Rolling five. Years? Is it one fiscal year at the time? So that's part of the items that we would be looking at. And when you look at the purchasing policy revisions, so there's a multitude of things that need to be looked at and determine how we want. To proceed with. That. But that's. On our list. To do. With the implementation of the ERP, because I understand sometimes ERP help, it's not just human resources management but also contract management with the implementation of the ERP. Help in this regard. We are all and I think I can speak for just about every single person in the city are looking. Forward to a new ERP and contract management is one of the provisions to include one of the modules for the new system. And we. Are all hoping that that's going to. Be part of our solution. It won't be the only solution, obviously, but yes, we're all looking forward to using that component of it. Great. Well, thank you very much. With that, I'm satisfied with the staff presentation and the information. Put that in the report. And if no one, I would move. I am. I mean, to add a comment, I just want to note that in the in this document, the report on that very same page that Councilmember De so was referencing, just for the public to know that management's response was included at the bottom of the page. And it's pretty much what Ms.. Elaina, Ms.. Header just told us, that city staff is aware of current purchasing policy deficiencies and have completed an assessment of citywide procurement processes and review of procedures. The next plan step or to redesign current process to provide for greater efficiencies. This purchasing policy and related city ordinance will be reviewed and proposed changes will be presented to the City Council for approval. So I have no doubt that once we get past the budget, some of those items will be coming to the council. Councilmember Desai Yeah, who. Who are the entities that received these cumulative amounts that exceed the threshold significantly? Actually I do have or ed here in the audience. So I'm going to ask her specifically to see if she's aware. Okay. Okay. So if you just give us off at the end of that. Of course, yes. Okay. All right. Okay. Okay. So we have a motion for approval of and this is the consent calendar, the minutes and the recommendation to accept the audited financial position. We have a motion in second on favor. I oppose abstain and the motion passes unanimously. Thank you. Right now we move to a regular city council meeting. Roll Call has been noted. Five present. Thank you. And before we get to the rest of the agenda, I just want to make an announcement that we have our new city manager, Eric Leavitt, here with us. This is his first council meeting and we're thrilled to have him on board. So please welcome Eric Levitt. All right. With that, do we have any did you want to say something? Do you want. To? By the time. I thought. We were getting out. Oh, no, we're. I said, would you like to just say hello or whatever? I want to thank the City Council for providing this opportunity. I'm excited. I've been here. Coming on. This will be the end about a week, week and a half, depending on your your your calculations. And I'm very excited. This is a very engaged community, very engaged city. And I think this is a great opportunity. I want to thank you very much. I'm excited to be all working in partnership with you and the community. Thank you. And I will just note that Mr. Levitt's a really good sport, because on his very first day on the job, he went with me to the Alameda County Conference of Mayors meeting in Union City. And when I got in, he said, Do you want me to drive? Do you want to drive? And I said, I thought we'd take public transit. And I slapped him. And we walked across the street and we took AC Transit to the Fruitvale Station and we hopped on a BART train to Union City. That was a brand new BART stay, a BART train. And are they slick and quiet and smooth and have electronic screen that shows the map? On the way back, we got the old one that bounced in, you know, like a stagecoach. But he's, you know, saw the gamut. But anyway, I thought that was that was admirable. But we're looking forward to having you as our manager. So agenda changes. Oh, yes. Let's start with the city clerk. My five d has been withdrawn and is going to come back at the next meeting. And unfortunately, now five P is also going to be brought back at the next meeting instead due to a wrong ordinance being posted and the RFP is still going to be issued next week. So do you want to explain in a little more detail what those numbers the last five. Legislative agenda is, D, and then the cannabis item is five. P. And so the RFP for potential businesses will still go ahead and be issued, but the vote on the ordinances themselves has to come back because we always have to comply with the proper noticing.