Newest Black Hole in Universe Discovered in Port Orange Finance
Sorry Greg but I am not buying your answer,
The information I am requesting is on topic and should already be prepared, AND IF it hasn’t been prepared then where are the numbers in your budget coming from ???
The pension contribution expense is an excellent example. The Fire Actuary’s required contribution calculation of $2.849 million for FY 2014 was increased in your budget to $ 3.347 million. Was that $3.347 million pulled out of the air, OR is there an underlying calculation ?? If there is an underlying calculation why are you refusing to release it.
Ditto for the Police and General pension expense calculations.
You answer regarding the audit recommendations is equally non sensei cal. You are in essence saying that – to have Finance provide an organizational chart indicating employees, their positions and the job description and duties of those positions WOULD TAKE valuable time away from their design, implementation and presumable monitoring of corrections to internal control deficiencies INCLUDING DEVELOPING transactional integrity by ensuring adequate training and experience and appropriate separation of duties.
Can you explain how exactly any of that is being accomplished without an organizational chart ??
If your finance staff has not already prepared the requisite material I have requested and more besides, then they are likely even more incompetent then I am imagining. Their report on the internal control corrections to date at the last Council meeting such as ‘we no longer keep keys to sensitive items in the in the locks themselves’ could not even be characterized as low hanging fruit, and their presentation on credit card protocol was little more than ‘ if anyone asks any questions we will be offended and make faces’. Of all the ko koo departments in the City finance has been the worst and most injurious to taxpayer wallets. None of this should acceptable to you, and what is unacceptable to the rest of us is that you are giving no clear understanding as to how we are supposed to monitor your progress in rectifying this menagerie.
With the size and salaries paid in Port Orange finance we should be preparing timely financial statements in house, both interim and year end. Instead we get incomplete snapshots throughout the year from a general ledger so deficient that at year end it requires hundreds of adjusting entries and 5 or 6 months of effort for the Auditor to prepare a set of financial statements.
AND that did not just happen this year
Finance has been under the same ineffective leadership for the past decade. I understand why that suited the former manager and his disinterested hands off CFO. I do not understand why it is suiting you. Nor do I understand the level of secrecy you are applying to all things financial.
We talked about this exact scenario when you were hiring your current CFO. I reviewed all of the CFO applications and not one of my short list applicants including those with recent municipal audit experience made it to the short list compiled by the former HR Director and the Assistant City Manager. I asked the HR director as to the criteria he used to prepare his short list, and he could not explain why he chose the ones he did. He had no comment to my observation that he must have had a natural talent for sniffing out the least qualified candidates, or that he must have been otherwise encouraged to select the 6 worst he could find plus Wayne Saunders. AND if that was the case that is fine. You got the CFO of your choice who is utterly dependent on a long serving condescending Comptroller insistent on refusing to share information in an understandable manner, AND now you and he need to figure out how to deliver a work product on a timely basis.
The information I have requested would not take an audit senior worth their weight in salt at any CPA firm in town an afternoon to compile.
Please instruct you finance staff to quit their whining and start getting this information out.
Ted Noftall
—–Original Message—–
From: Kisela, Greg [mailto:gkisela@port-orange.org]
Sent: Thursday, July 25, 2013 2:06 PM
To: Ted Noftall; Saunders, Wayne
Cc: Fenwick, Robin; Bob Ford; Kennedy, Dennis; don@amlsfl.com; Drew Bastian; Green, Allen; Corey Berman; Ivan Cosimi; Jack Wiles; Joe Fazzie; Laney, Sonya; Mark Schaefer
Subject: RE: Information Requested
Ted: I am not trying to be difficult but as I explained at the last Audit and Budget Board meeting the Finance Department has been tasked to accomplish several issues. The first being the final preparation of the FY 2014 Budget in time for the scheduled budget hearings in September . The second being completion of the external and forensic audits recommendations by the end of September. Some of the requested information you have requested requires resources to be diverted from these efforts. By copy of this e-mail I am asking Wayne to provide a response on which items you have requested we can provide without delaying completion of the above priorities.
Greg Kisela
City Manager
From: Ted Noftall [mailto:Ted@TedNoftall.com]
Sent: Thursday, July 25, 2013 7:11 AM
To: ‘Saunders, Wayne’
Cc: ‘Kisela, Greg’; ‘Fenwick, Robin’; Bob Ford (rford37@cfl.rr.com); Dennis Kennedy (dkennedy@port-orange.org); don@amlsfl.com; Drew Bastian (db2070@cfl.rr.com); Mayor Green (agreen@port-orange.org); Corey Berman (realtorcor@aol.com); Ivan Cosimi (icosimi@smabehavioral.org); Jack Wiles (jackwilesrealtor@gmail.com); Joe Fazzie (jafazz62@aol.com); Laney, Sonya; Mark Schaefer (mark@mark-schaefer.com)
Subject: Information Requested
Wayne,
There are times when financial approximations are most useful in keeping fast paced conversations moving. There are also times such as when requested, or when presenting a financial report when great accuracy is required. Accordingly
- I would request that you supplement your financial report for the 3rd quarter of FY 2013 by disclosing the relevant cash reserve percentages for the General, Water & Sewer and Solid Waste funds reported on in that report.
I believe the next meeting of the A&B Advisory Board is slated for Aug 5th and I would again urge you to release information as it becomes available to facilitate greater time for review rather that release material in bulk closer to or on the day of an event.
It would be most helpful if you would provide the following as it is prepared.
1) The revised budget.
2) The revised personnel projections including totals for Sick and Vacation buy-backs
3) A reconciliation of budgeted pension contributions to the Actuaries required pension contributions for Fire, Police and General.
4) An analysis in support of those major revenue sources such as Property Tax and Water and Sewer fees where you are budgeting lower revenues in FY 2014 than were actually received in FY 2012
5) A detailed analysis of the assigned reserves for police $ 208,166 fire $ 165,971 and general $ 122,121 indicating by year both additions and deletions if any, from those balances. Please indicate how these allocation amounts were determined and if they were approved by any resolution of Council.
6) The Mayor’s requested spreadsheet analyzing prior years audit recommendations.
7) The organizational chart for Finance indicating employees, their positions and the job description and duties of those positions.
Thank you
Ted Noftall
While watchdog groups are often helpful they can also be destructive. The City seems to be in disarray and has their hands full. Many senior managers have left abruptly and it appears that others are following. It is a shame that a small number of citizens feel that they have the power over the true people’s choice of elected officials. Does a City of 60,000 really deserve burdening its workforce for the sake of a few disgruntled citizens? Perhaps they should bring on their supporters and seek election so that they can become part of the solution rather than pestering an already overburdened workforce. This seems to be a problem in itself that simply takes valuable time from away from the workforce in dealing with the real problems at hand. The true mission is to serve the best interests of the 60,000. The squeaky wheels have gotten more than their fair share of grease. Let’s save some grease for the other 59,995 of us. How about we act as responsible citizens and contact the Elected Council Member for our respective zones with our concerns and let them represent them for us. That is the model of our local governmental process and if not adhered to all that we can create is chaos rather than progress.
Pat, I love these gutless wonders who are afraid to sign their names to anything. Sounds like # 59,995 just might be one of those overburdened members of the illustrious Port Orange workforce.
I’ll bet # 59,995 would indeed like activists to leave it to the elected representatives just like we left it to them under the last Manager and we all know how that turned out.