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FINANCE COMMITTEE 2017/12/18 Minutes The City of Lake Forest FINANCE COMMITTEE Proceedings of the December 18, 2017 Special Meeting 6:30 p. m. – City Hall Chambers 220 E. Deerpath I. Call to Order and Roll Call The meeting was called to order at 6:31 p.m. Present: Mayor Lansing, Chairman Morris, Aldermen Beidler, Rummel, Newman, Reisenberg, Tack, Moreno and Buschmann. Absent: None. Quorum present. There were approximately 43 present in the audience. Staff present: Robert Kiely, Jr., City Manager; Elizabeth Holleb, Finance Director; Diane Hall, Assistant Finance Director; Pete Siebert, Fire Chief; Cathy Czerniak; Community Development Director; Karl Walldorf, Police Chief; Sally Swarthout, Parks and Recreation Director; DeSha Kalmar, Human Resources Director and Victor Filippini: City Attorney Others present: There were thirty-four people in the audience. Mr. Robert Lansing, Mayor made a statement regarding questions arising regarding lobbyist expenses incurred to secure an Amtrak stop at the west side train station brought up at the December 4th City Council meeting. He stated an executive session would be held after the City Council to discover facts in regards to personnel matters in relation to the lobbyist expenses. No formal actions would be taken and any options and further discussion will be brought back to a future City Council meeting. He stated to expedite the meeting, Public Comment would be restricted to 4 speakers for no more than 3 minutes each. Any other comments could be submitted by letter or email. II. Consideration of Minutes from the Finance Committee Meeting Held on November 13, 2017 Alderman Rummel made a motion to approve the minutes from the Finance Committee meeting held on November 13, 2017. The motion was seconded by Alderman Newman. The motion carried unanimously by voice vote. III. Contingency Accounting Procedures - Recommendations Mr. James Morris, Finance Chairman stated tonight’s discussion regarding procedures developed by Mr. Morris and Finance Director Elizabeth Holleb, was the result of the lobbyist expenditures for the purpose of retaining an Amtrak stop. He thanked the residents of Lake Forest for bringing this item to the attention of the City Council. He stated the Mayor had asked for a review of these expenditures. He stated that he had met with Ms. Holleb to discuss ways to improve our policies and procedures over contractual services in the contingency accounts. Ms. Elizabeth Holleb, Finance Director stated the City currently has very good policies and internal control procedures. She stated a meeting was held on December 8th regarding the Contingency Funds. She reviewed the procedures currently in place over the two different budgeted contingency accounts. She reviewed proposed changes. • Current monthly contingency reports will also be sent to the Finance Chairman in addition to the City Manager. • Reeducate operating departments on procedures to submit contingency requests prior to expenses being incurred to ensure funding is available. • Third Party expenses – to adopt a procedure for any third party payments paid through a contractor be acknowledgement or approved by the City Council. • City finances are audited each year by an independent third party, the results of which are presented to the City Audit Committee. Include in the Audit Committee engagement letter to have the auditors review the contingency account administration for the FY2018 audit and to report any recommendations. She stated that staff is seeking comment on these recommendations and if any of the changes affect the purchasing directives, these would be incorporated into the May 1, 2018 directives. Finance Committee Meeting Minutes – December 18, 2017 The Committee discussed adding dollar limits on sub-payees and limit a maximum per year for sub- payees in the contingency accounts. Ms. Holleb stated the City annually passes an appropriation ordinance, which includes a 10% contingency for emergency purposes above the annually approved budget. She stated the City abides by the budget and any overages would need to be approved by the City Council. The Committee discussed the difference between the two current contingency accounts and the purpose for each account. The City Council Contingency account is for items initiated by the City Council and the non-department account is for unforeseen unbudgeted items arising during the fiscal year. The Committee recommended the procedures for the contingency accounts be changed to reflect positions rather than names and be reviewed annually. IV. 2018 Core and Elective Service Analysis - Update Mr. Mike Strong, Assistant to the City Manager stated the process of reviewing the Core and Elective Services is part of the annual budget process. He reviewed the new methodology staff has used to review current services. He reviewed a list by department showing the number of services and the number of services classified as core or elective. He stated one of the new processes was to develop a scoring matrix similar to the rating of capital projects. He stated the different services were included in the packet with the staff rating. He reviewed an anticipated time line for the project. He stated the services will be made available for the public to review without the scoring. The Committee discussed the need to have the services listing available online for residents to review. A suggestion would be to have a link on the website and a method to submit comments. They discussed possible groupings could be classified as core and elective and may need to be broken out. They discussed the reduction in current staff over the years may be affected by a property tax freeze and may affect current elective services. The Committee requested a trend analysis by department over the years. V. Other Business 1) November 2017 Flash Report – The information was included in the packet VI. Opportunity for the Public to Address the Finance Committee: Ms. Kate Zimlich 351 Wisconsin Ave. discussed the December 16th Chicago Tribune article Mr. Sam Hallak 698 S Waukegan Rd. discussed the third rail impact on his home Ms. Joanne Desmond 1681 Yale Ct. discussed the third rail expenditures Mr. Tom Sarsfield 1808 Princeton Ct. discussed the environmental impact from the third rail VII. Adjournment There being no further business, Alderman Beidler moved, seconded by Alderman Newman, to adjourn the meeting at 7:17 p.m. The motion carried unanimously by voice vote. Respectfully Submitted, Diane Hall Assistant Finance Director