Finance Committee Agenda and Packet 2016 01 19

Home Browse Search

City Council Finance Committee Meeting Minutes 12/15/15 Page 3 of 5 involved with management decisions, but that having the dashboard information would allow for a higher level of review and oversight. Committee Chairperson Stolzmann asked what the legal requirement is for the Finance Committee to review City bills. She stated she couldn't find anything in the City's Charter on this issue. City Manager Fleming and Mayor Muckle stated that they believed this to be a State Statute requirement. Resident Leary stated that he believed City Council has always been responsible to approve bills. Member Stolzmann stated that she would like to work with staff, within the confines of the existing financial software, to group or format the warrant list in a more understandable and meaningful way, maybe exporting the information into an Excel document similar to what is provided for purchase cards. Stolzmann stated that perhaps this will be a goal for later in the year after conversion to the new ERP system. Committee Member Maloney stated that he would prefer to focus on making sure the new ERP system can provide the reporting and detail needed, instead of trying to change the reporting of the existing financial software. Senior Accountant, Graham Clark stated that manipulating data out of the existing software is very cumbersome and the export of data is not clean. Resident, Gary Sanders asked staff what platform the new software will be run on. Finance Director Watson stated that it is a SQL Server platform. Mr. Sanders asked if the City will have dedicated report writing staff. Mr. Watson stated that there is presently no report writing staff. Council Member Stolzmann stated that she would also like the non - profit grant funding process streamlined. Ms. Stolzmann stated that she would like to work with staff and the rest of the Finance Committee members to set the program goals, perhaps create a scoring system, and to amend the submission requirements by asking key questions and limiting the responses to 50 words or less. Director Watson stated that would be fine, but reminded the Committee that the grant program letters are sent in June each year. For the 2016 program to be changed, the Committee would need to work out these details soon. Member Stolzmann reviewed some of the standard reporting provided to the Finance Committee. Ms. Stolzmann asked the Finance Committee members if they were satisfied with the Sales Tax reporting received. The Committee members stated the reporting was very good and recommended no changes. Next, Council Member Stolzmann asked members if the financial statements are sufficient. Member Stolzmann stated she believes the reports are solid but would like to see program totals and metrics incorporated into the reports in the long term as previously discussed.