Agendas and Minutes

Municipal Audit Committee (View All)

Audit Committee Meeting

Agenda
Thursday, January 30, 2003

These are DRAFT minutes pending approval by the Audit Committee at their next meeting.

Audit Committee
Minutes
January 30, 2003, 9:00am
Community Development and Engineering Services Building,
Siskiyou Room, 51 Windburn Way

 

CALL TO ORDER
Chairperson Marty Levine called the meeting to order at 9:08am.

ROLL CALL
Present: Committee Members Roberta Stebbins, CPA, Marty Levine, CPA, Emile Amarotico, CPA and City Recorder/Treasurer Barbara Christensen. Council Liaison, Mayor Alan DeBoer and Staff Liaison Lee Tuneberg.
Staff: Interim City Administrator Brian Almquist and Administrative Assistant Kirsten Bakke.
Others: AFN and Budget Committee Member Russ Silbiger.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES
Stebbins/Amarotico m/s to approve the January 16, 2003 minutes with the following changes: page 1 include Roberta Stebbins as present. Page 2 remove inaccurate reference to Amarotico and correct the spelling of the Mayor.

COMMITTEE DISCUSSES CHANGES TO THEIR CHARGE
Levine began discussing the last meeting and whether the Committee would add a fourth charge to their duties and function like an internal audit committee. DeBoer clarified his intention at the last meeting, questioning if the audit committee should perform more than the function of the audit. Christensen expressed that she was not comfortable with the Audit Committee doing internal auditing. DeBoer confirmed the importance of qualifications and liability issues. The Committee discussed whether any changes should be made to the current audit committee charges. They talked about public requests to increase AFN rates. Almquist assured that staff was already looking at market driven rates. Stebbins clarified that the Auditor's don't report on the "going concern" of AFN. Levine explained that standard procedure in a for- profit entity is to look at whether the entity is a "viable going concern", in a non-profit that test is only made on the overall entity, in this case the City of Ashland, individual components are not tested from that test point. Ashland has the unique situation of having a for-profit entity under our shell, which is in direct competition with other for-profit entities DeBoer pointed out that the Ambulance is similar to AFN in that way. Levine continued, saying that it was within the purview of the Audit Committee to recommend reviewing AFN. Almquist disagreed with Levine, saying that recommending a management audit or review of a business plan was not within the purview of the Committee. The discussion ensued.

Tuneberg clarified his statement from the last meeting, saying that the Auditors' were in the planning mode and if there was anything that was within their scope for them to examine that the Committee could steer them. DeBoer said that two areas to focus on would be AFN and the Ambulance. Levine clarified the focus should be from the vantage of whether these entities were "viable going concerns".

PUBLIC INPUT
Russ Silbiger/562 Ray Lane
/Expressed concerns about AFN and whether council received accurate information. He recommended starting up the ad hoc committee again to deal with ongoing concerns.

DISCUSSION CONTINUED
Tuneberg clarified that the report to council shows overall revenues and overall expenses, and performance by the plan in the number of connections in different areas. He concurred that Highspeed shows under performance because it is struggling with the competition and that may be one of the toughest places to raise rates. He said that the information is presented on an accrual basis, which is different from the budget basis. He confirmed that the current report format that council receives had been approved by the ad hoc AFN committee. The Committee continued to discuss AFN and the function of the market.

Christensen summarized saying that there would be no changes to the Resolution other than the voting changes from the last meeting. She said the Committee would ask staff to look at the two for-profit entities, AFN and Ambulance and assess if there would be any additional cost from the Auditors'. The Committee would review the Auditors' report then give a recommendation to council. There was a discussion about ambulance.

Tuneberg summarized that at the previous meeting there were questions about scope, responsibility of committee, voting membership and the relationship of the Committee to Parks. Another question put to the Committee was within the scope of the financial audit were there any changes that the Committee would like to see. Levine summarized that there was no need to change the charge of the Committee other than restore the voting rights of the City Recorder. Christensen agreed to write that recommendation to council.

Levine/Amarotico m/s to request the auditors' to determine whether it is in their scope to do a "going concern" review of AFN and Ambulance. Voice Vote: ALL AYES.

Levine clarified that Lee would check with the Auditors' if it is within their scope to do a "going concern" review of AFN and the Ambulance, if there is an additional fee involved the Committee would meet again to vote on additional recommendations to council.

ADJOURNMENT
Meeting was adjourned at 10:15am.

Respectfully submitted,
Kirsten Bakke, Administrative Assistant to the Finance Director

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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