CITY OF LA HABRA HEIGHTS

 

SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES

 

DECEMBER 27, 2007

 

 

OPENING CEREMONIES

 

1.              CALL MEETING TO ORDER

 

Mayor Bergman called the Special City Council Meeting to order at 6:32 p.m. on December 27, 2007.

 

2.              ROLL CALL

 

Present: Mayor Brian Bergman, Mayor Pro Tem Stan Carroll and Councilmembers Layne Baroldi, Tela Millsap and Howard Vipperman.

 

Also Present: City Attorney Sandra Levin (by Conference Phone) and Interim City Manager Shauna Clark.

 

3.              FLAG SALUTE

 

Mayor Pro Tem Carroll led the flag salute.

 

Mayor Bergman stated that they will take Public Comments tonight.

 

PUBLIC COMMENTS

 

            George Edwardz stated that evidently the former City Manager left something undone that was needed. Why was a special meeting scheduled to employ an auditor without a bidding process for an expenditure of almost $25,000. He asked how long had discrepancies been going on and how were they found. Did it involve any wrongdoing by employees? Would there have to be any legal actions against individuals? He asked if it is legal to select a company without going out to bid. Will the outcome of the audit be Public Record? He offered his opinion that there could be better uses for $25,000.

 

            Stephen Blagden, Citron Road, provided the Council with an example of a spread sheet to make reports of the City’s spending for different items that could be helpful in running the City.

 

            Pam McVicar, Hillside Court, stated that she was representing the Park Master Plan Committee. Ms. McVicar stated that the Committee did not get the grant they were working for, due to an employee missing the deadline for that grant. She asked that the Council have an Item on the January Agenda to consider continuing the Park Master Plan Committee. This would enable us to work for other grants in the future. The letter presented to the Council asking for continuance is signed by eleven of the Committee members. She stated that she was not able to get in contact with the remaining members. She asked why the City was not able to get the matter out for the grants when the Committee had it ready in time.

 

NEW BUSINESS

 

4.              PROFESSIONAL SERVICES AGREEMENT WITH MANAGEMENT PARTNERS, INC. TO AUDIT FINANCE AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT AND SYSTEMS

 

RECOMMENDATION:                    That Council authorize the Interim City Manager to enter into a professional services agreement in an amount not to exceed $24,500 with Management Partners, Inc. to perform a management audit of the city’s fiscal and information technology processes and procedures.

 

            Interim City Manager Clark stated that her interest is in Finance and came with an idea of how to improve operations. She found that the City does not have enough staff to look at things in this area. She stated that there is one vacancy that saves that salary and money has been budgeted for various consultants to do the work when staff is not able to do it. Ms. Clark stated that she found that there are processes that can be changed to catch revenues that we are not currently capturing and allow us to save time and effort. This is not the same as an audit for fraud that we have yearly. This audit looks at the way we do things as a City. She noted that by allocating administrative costs of doing weed abatement to the charge of the actual weed abatement for those who did not do their own weed abatement, they learned that it was cheaper for property owners to hire their own abatement. We have been given other ideas that would benefit the City also. She stated that she chose a company that she never worked with before after discussing qualifications of companies with other City Managers. We will be working with a former manager of Freemont and Morgan Hill, California and she will be bringing in a specialist in Public Industry audits and Public Industry financial practices. Our principal will also be bringing in an Information Software and Security specialist. We will also need the allocation system to cover all of our costs for Code Enforcement. Ms. Clark stated that we need software that will combine these charges without having to re-enter part of the information into Finance. She stated that these things would be Public Information and she was of the opinion that this system would end up paying for itself in the end. The firm can start right away.

 

            Mayor Pro Tem Carroll asked City Attorney Levin if it is legal to not go out to bid when selecting this company.

 

            City Attorney Levin stated that this is a Professional Services Agreement not a Public Works Agreement so there is not a requirement to put it to a Public Bidding or Prevailing Wage process.

 

            Stephen Blagden, Citron Road, stated that the Park Master Plan Committee should be working under the Brown Act. The letter should have been generated in public at a public meeting. He stated that the Management audit is a good idea and the Finance audit should be done in more depth than it has been. It is just good business. Planning could also benefit from the allocation system with developers. Possibly it could be looked at as a better system for their record keeping system.

 

            Interim City Manager Clark answered a question from Mayor Pro Tem Carroll by explaining how she chose the Management Partners, Inc. and she also explained that each Department Budget has money set aside for contractors and people to do staff work where we prefer not to hire full time staff and are just doing some unique project not requiring the burden of additional staff. Ms. Clark stated that this money specifically came from Professional Services in the City Manager’s Department, the General Services Budget and the CDD Budget.

 

            Councilmember Millsap asked if the consultants would be working in our offices or have remote access to our computers.

 

            Interim City Manager Clark answered that they would be working from our offices and would not have remote abilities to our computers, but would have any information that is on line already. She stated that the first thing the two specialists will do is to interview the City Council, myself and then Staff. They will start on January 10, 2008. She stated that she will ask them to talk with those making the Annual Audit about some issues that have come up.

 

            Councilmember Millsap asked that Management Partners, Inc. look into the duties and the Policies and Procedures document of the Treasurer.

 

            Interim City Manager Clark stated that they would start with our procedures that we are using now.

 

            The consensus of the City Council was that this type of audit was a good thing.

 

            Mayor Pro Tem Carroll moved to authorize the Interim City Manager to enter into a professional services agreement with Management Partners, Inc., not to exceed $24,500 to perform a management audit of the City’s processes and procedures. The motion was seconded by City Councilmember Vipperman and approved as follows:

 

            AYES: Baroldi, Bergman, Carroll, Millsap and Vipperman

            NOES: None

            ABSENT: None

 

COUNCIL COMMENTS

 

            Mayor Pro Tem Carroll asked that the Park Master Plan proposal by the Committee be placed on the Agenda for the January Meeting and also address why it was not submitted for the grant in time.

 

            Councilmember Baroldi asked that the question about whether the Park Master Plan Committee is under the Brown Act be answered.

 

            City Attorney Levin stated that it would be answered.

 

            Pam McVicar stated that the question came up during one of their meetings and they were told that they were not under the Brown Act.

 

ADJOURNMENT

 

            Mayor Bergman adjourned the Special City Council Meeting of December 27, 2007 at 7:05 p.m.

 

            ATTEST:

 

 

 

            __________________________________

            Shauna Clark, Interim City Clerk