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12-06-1988 (City Council) Minutes 216 CALLED CITY COUNCIL MEETING - MINUTES -um*, DECEMBER 6, 1988 The City of Wylie City Council met in a called session on Tuesday, December 6, 1988 in the Conference Room of the City Manager' s Office in the Municipal Complex . A quorum was present and notice of the meeting had been posted in the time and manner required by law. Those present were Mayor Chuck Trimble, Mayor Pro Tem John Akin, Council Members Marvin Blakey, Bud Naish, Ortie Messenger, Jim Swartz and Tom Pritzkau, City Secretary Carolyn Jones, Secretary Candi White, Auditors Brent Doll and and Scott Hatfield. Mayor Trimble called the meeting to order and Councilman Swartz gave the invocation. Mr . Brent Doll stated that the meeting tonight was to give a preliminary over view of the 1987-88 audit. Last week we completed the over all audit, although complete figures are not ready for you tonight . We have a preliminary report and the management comments for you. Mr . Scott Hatfield stated that each fund is set up as it' s ..,� own company and is self balancing . Most accounts were in good shape except debt services , this does not concern us. The one that does concern us is utility - deficit of $123,890 . Special Revenue funds are in good shape and this year we closed out revenue sharing . In capital projects, took $50 ,00 from Public Safety to use in utility for payroll , this was transferred in 1986 budget year and never was paid back. This needs to be paid back. Councilman Naish asked if $50 ,00 has been put back in. Mr. Hatfield said not as of 9-30-88 . Mr. Hatfield said one positive thing is sanitation this year has shown a small profit . Mr. Hatfield said that payroll , municipal court and state court funds are holding funds and should zero out each month. This is not happening . Mr . Hatfield also stated that it was a good year over all , bank balances were up a little , but the cash flow is still critical , and spending needs to be watched. GENERAL LEDGER MAINTENANCE: Mr. Hatfield stated the soft ware has some problems, it is not closing the month end or year end properly. Mr. Hatfield said he did not think we needed a new system, but needed to evaluate the one we have. 217 Councilman Pritzkau wanted to know how many dollars are being wasted on this system. Mr. Hatfield said probably 15 to 20% but cannot give you a direct figure. OFFICE ORGANIZATION: Mr . Hatfield stated that a lot of time was spent in finding bank statements, no central filing system. There are three copies of each check, there needs to be guide lines on how to file these check copies. The same thing holds true for the vendor files . There was also some original documents that could not be located . SPECIAL PURPOSE BANK ACCOUNTS: We have found seven (7) new bank accounts that were never set up on the general ledger. Some of these new accounts are: Employee Fund Account, Railroad Crossing Fund, Police & Drug and Crime, Police Training Fund. None of the above accounts are set up in the general ledger, therefore, Council is not getting a report on these funds. Councilman Naish said Council needs to review who signs checks and the largest amount with Council authority. LEASE PAYMENTS: There is a large number of leases, City has been very inconsistent in making payments. Paying unnecessary late charges. AUDIT TRAILS AND SUPPORTING DOCUMENTATION: In smaller funds, very weak documentation on what is going on in the accounts. Needs more control and supervision. STREET ASSESSMENTS: Still have street assessments that are outstanding from several years back. COURT FUND MANAGEMENT: There are three places to deposit money, General Fund, Municipal Court Fund and State Court Fund. There is a communication problem in this area. Checks have been ordered without check numbers, very hard to keep up with how many checks have been written, etc, and there are duplicate numbers on the checks . GENERAL COMMENTARY AND CONCLUSIONS: This is the worst year we have had , poor moral problems, incomplete job descriptions and work load assignments , no control system and no training . OTHER COMMENTS AND OBSERVATIONS: CASH MANAGEMENT : CD matured and sat in the fund for some time, staff discovered it later and it lost interest from December 1987 to September 1988 . 218 CASHIER ACTIVITY: This area needs to be watched , checks are left laying around. There are three suggestions for this area: 1. all checks and cash be deposited the same day; 2 . daily cashier duties should be placed on an assigned person rotation, preferably utilizing all finance department personnel on a 2-3 hour "shift"; 3 . all cash disbursements should be signed immediately prior to release. DEBT SERVICE BUDGETING: Currently budgeting all transfers from the operating funds into the debt service funds by issue. The actual debt expenditures by issue in the related debt service funds. This system creates the appearance of double expenditures for debt service. Our firm recommends the budgeting process be amended to show all debt service expenditures by issue only in the debt service funds and the expenditure from the operating fund be shown as a transfer out and the revenue as a transfer in. PUBLIC SAFETY EQUIPMENT NOTES: Approximately $50,000 was loaned from this fund to Utility. As this was and is not an authorized use of these monies, steps should be taken to pay it back. In addition, minutes disclosed that the intent of City Council was to purchase a new boat and other fire equipment from these monies . Our audit shoes these items were purchased from the general fund not this fund. IMPACT AND LIFT STATION FUNDS: Our audit revealed that monies were spent from the Lift Station Fund for new sewer lines and this should have come from the Impact Fund. This error has been corrected by an interfund journal entry. Our firm recommends that the Council appoint a :signature committee or person: to manually sign all checks on special purpose accounts . Mr. Hatfield said in summary the numbers are looking better, but the department is sliding. Felt three years ago downtown would give staff a chance to catch up. Three years later , staff does not have a day to day operations , and they are not learning through training , but on their own. There was discussion on the amount of water deposit and if it was enough to cover when people skip out . It was noted that the Ordinance states after water is cut off twice for the same resident, then another deposit is to be collected prior to turning the water back on. Mayor Trimble recessed the open meeting and convened Council into executive session at 9 :10 P.M. under the authority of Article 6252-17 V.A.C.S. , Section 2 Paragraph "g" Personnel Matters , Contract personnel - Auditors concerning year end audit. 219 221 Mayor Trimble reconvened the open meeting at 9: 50 P.M. and stated there was no action necessary from the executive session. GENERAL DISCUSSION: Councilman Pritzkau stated there was a discrepancy in PSI report for Twin Lakes . Check the contract to see if there was 28 day testing . Appears to be only a 60 day test not the usual 28 day standard test . Also there was a water leak in Birmingham on the new line. The City and M. E. Hicks had to fix it, need to make sure we pulled their bond and seek reimbursement for the repairs the City had to do. Mayor Pro Tem Akin said need to tell XIT, that he needs to be satisfied with the lines prior to the street being put in, as he would be responsible for it. Councilman Pritzkau said it was not the street, but the water line, it has not been compacted properly. Councilman Naish said he read where the City of Murphy is going to go with Wylie with their sewer lines . Councilman Messenger said he had a visit from Dwight Scott concerning Brookshires . Would like to see a Resolution showing Council support for Brookshires. Mayor Trimble stated he received a letter from the Highway Department and the schedule of reconstruction to Highway 78 should begin in 1992 . The City needs to acquire the R-O-W ways prior to this time. Councilman Swartz wanted to make sure we have the Resolution for Brookshires on the next agenda. Mayor Trimble said that Buddy Minyard has filed another lawsuit against the city for the citations that were issued. These citations were dropped after the trial was over . Rob Dillard says there is no case. City Secretary , Carolyn Jones said the City received a summons telling us we have 20 days to reply. Mayor Trimble said we would wait to hear from Rob Dillard on what to do next. City Secretary Carolyn Jones handed out copies of the news release and the job opportunity announcement concerning the City Manager ' s position. There was some discussion on sending out letters to other City' s and to publish in newspapers as well as TML and other magazines. Change the deadline date to February 3, 1989 in order to reach all areas. 222 City Secretary Carolyn Jones stated that a Mrs. Foster came to see her and was a little upset. She lives on FM 544 across from Steel Industrial Park and has been told by some of the staff members that she is in the City and is zoned and cannot sell her property until she has put water and sewer in. Her property is in the City, but it has never been zoned and therefore staff cannot keep her from selling her lot as long as she does not subdivide. She is requesting a letter from the Mayor and myself regarding this matter. I need to know if Council objects to me drafting this letter for the Mayor' s and my signature. Council said to do this letter for Mrs. Foster . City Secretary Carolyn Jones said the newspaper called today and wanted us to take the same ad as we had last year . The cost of this ad was $162 . 00, do we want the ad this year. Councilman Blakey said to put the seasons greeting in the water bills and not take the ad. The other Council members stated the same feelings. City Secretary Carolyn Jones stated that there was a committee formed while she was out of the office and there has been a Christmas party planned for December 12th, and employees have voted on employees of the year Police, Fire, Public Works and City Hall staff . We would like to award these people a plaque that will be done in house plus a .�., weeks paid vacation to the three employees from City Hall and a clock and belt buckle for the fireman. The approximate cost of the party is $600 .00 and we have this much in the employee fund. After some discussion, it was granted by Council to give the week off plus the plaque and belt buckle and clock for fire department. Also need to reschedule the sign ordinance. There being no other matters of discus n; a motion was made to adjourn with all in favor. Chuck Trimble, Mayor ATTEST• ����� aoti mittit% C roly es, ecretary