MINUTES
FINANCE COMMITTEE
MEMBERS
PRESENT: Chairman John VanderLeest,
Ald. Steven Deneys, and Ald. Tom Weber
MEMBERS EXCUSED: Ald. Tony Theisen,
OTHERS PRESENT: Doug Daul, Linda Dupuis, Chief
Arts, Mark Delaski, Jill VandenPlas, Laurie Paulsen, and Others
1. Roll Call.
Chairman
John VanderLeest called the meeting to order at 5:45 p.m.; all members were
present except for Ald. Theisen, who was excused.
A moment
of silence was observed in commemoration of those lost September 11, 2001.
2. Approval of the Agenda.
A motion was made by Ald. Deneys and seconded by Ald. Weber to approve
the Agenda as amended with deletion of Item #6. Motion carried.
3. Approval of the minutes of the Finance
Committee meetings of August 14 and September 4, 2007.
A motion was made by Ald. Weber,
seconded by Ald. Deneys and carried to approve the minutes of the Finance
Committee meetings of August 14 and September 4, 2007.
4. Presentation regarding placing Municipal
Court records on the Web.
Mike
Hronek, GIS Coordinator, demonstrated a web-based search engine he had
devised. The program was modeled after
those used by other cities and is based on searching by name or citation
number. The date of birth and a short
description of any record is returned, and Ald. VanderLeest suggested that
Human Resources and Law develop a retention policy to determine how many years
should be made available. Staff will
handle necessary maintenance.
A motion
was made by Ald. Deneys to approve the
in-house program placing Municipal Court records on the Web and to recommend a
presentation to the Protection & Welfare Committee. It was seconded by Ald. Weber and carried.
5. Approval of a resolution establishing a
policy on refinancing municipal debt.
Finance
Director Doug Daul said this issue was discussed last month. The resolution included in their packets
would authorize him to bring an initial resolution to refinance directly to Council
before coming to Committee if a 2% net present-value savings on the bond issue
would be realized. He would work with
the City’s financial advisor as to a favorable time to put the initial
resolution on the Council agenda, and at this point the Committee could stop
such refunding if they so wished. It
would then be brought to the next Finance Committee meeting, where it could
again be stopped. By eliminating the
first Committee meeting, two to three weeks would be cut out of the process.
A motion was
made by Ald. Weber, seconded by Ald. Deneys, and carried to approve, as
presented, a resolution establishing a policy on refinancing municipal
debt.
7. Report of the Finance Director:
a. Report on internal controls.
Mr. Daul
introduced Jill VandenPlas, the new Payroll Supervisor. He said the issue of internal controls was
raised due to the recent theft occurring in Seymour, as well as another that
took place in Brown County. He
explained that as departments get smaller, it becomes more difficult to
maintain these controls. Ms. VandenPlas
said they had discussed controls that could be implemented to make thefts more
unlikely, among them having a segregation of duties between Payroll and Human
Resources. HR could be responsible for
entering the employee into the system as well as entering the pay rates. She also suggested that someone sign off on
the payroll register when finished.
Mr. Daul
said a payroll register is sent to all departments twice yearly to ensure that all
those shown on the payroll are actually employees of that department. In addition, a yearly audit is done. He explained that cash receipts are brought
to the Clerk/Treasurer’s office, receipted, and taken to the bank. The Finance Department then reconciles that
bank account, and more than one person is usually involved in this task. The process of entering a vendor and then
paying the vendor will become duties of different departments. Mr. Daul said a report containing salaries
of all employees is run for the Wisconsin Retirement System, and any unusual
salary progressions are looked at. He
and Comptroller Dawn Foeller are bonded, and he will check with the Insurance
Manager as to the kind of theft coverage the City holds.
Ald. Weber
suggested balancing the total from a W2 list to ledger expenses during the
year, and printing that list by department to look for any discrepancies. He said good versatility exists with reports
that can be pulled, and asked about having different personnel periodically run
different reports checking for irregularities.
A motion
was made by Ald. Deneys, seconded by Ald. Weber and carried to receive and
place on file the Report on Internal Controls.
A motion
to adjourn was made by Ald. Weber, seconded by Ald. Deneys, and carried. The meeting was adjourned at 6:25 p.m.
2007 CONTINGENCY FUND
$189,700.00
Any person wishing to
attend who, because of a disability, requires special accommodation should
contact the Mayor’s office at 448-3005 at least 24 hours before the scheduled
meeting time so that arrangements can be made.
Please take notice that it is possible that additional members of the Council may attend this committee meeting, resulting in a majority or quorum of the Common Council. This may constitute a meeting of the Common Council for purposes of discussion and information gathering relative to this agenda.