What exactly is your Finance department doing ??

Thank you Manager Kisela,
I am trying to establish that this round of correspondence is being initiated by Ted the private citizen and while the correspondence to-and-fro is itself a public record any subsequent use I may or may not make of it is not the business of the state.  If you believe otherwise and that you have a right to know if I subsequently share it  with my Mother or my Brother or anyone else or no one else you will need  to test your theory in court.
Your comment regarding inventory controls is  troubling.  Of course your supply inventory is constantly being received and depleted.  The whole point of not charging these large dollar number purchases directly to expense but rather to an inventory account  is to force financial reconciliations against tracked physical quantities which  is a concept that competent CFO’s and Comptroller’s  are cognizant of.   What exactly is your Finance department doing ??
Of equal concern from your e-mail as brief as it is that I am sensing an admission is in the offing to the effect that your Finance department does not track the revenue and expenses for water and sewer business it conducts outside the city limits,  AND  as such  Finance cannot  advise if the City is making a profit or incurring a loss on some or all of these  activities.
If that is the case that speaks volumes regarding the financial accounting competency  of your CFO and Comptroller.
Manager Kisela I do not sense that you appreciate that the City of Port Orange is a near $70 million a year business  approximately ½ of which is received  in cash, and THAT IT DEMANDS  greater financial accounting competence than reacting to a handful of annual  audit comments that themselves are not resultant from any analysis as to the adequacy of internal controls or financial accounting reporting  which we know the Finance department does not undertake.
I also do not sense  you appreciate at all  that the hard working taxpayers of Port Orange do not want to suffer the consequences of another round of Manager misfeasance by  accepting substandard performance on the part of the City’s  CFO and Comptroller.
I hope you can demonstrate that my sense of this situation is wrong and that your Finance department is performing competently as regards these  matters.
Ted Noftall

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–Original Message—–
From: Kisela, Greg [mailto:gkisela@port-orange.org]
Sent: Wednesday, May 07, 2014 3:16 PM
To: Ted Noftall; Fenwick, Robin
Cc: Saunders, Wayne; Roberts, Margaret
Subject: RE: Financial FOI
Ted: I did not represent that we tracked the yearly expenses for Daytona Beach Shores, Ponce Inlet and the fly-in areas on annual basis.  I represented that we had cost of service studies/calculations  for the rates we charged these entities.   Some of these studies/calculations  maybe dated depending on when they were last completed.
I will defer to Finance on what reports are available on the inventory levels.   As you know we are constantly receiving and charging out material for utility work.
I will defer to Margaret Roberts, City Attorney,  if this material when distributed to you, remains a public record since it falls under the responsibility you oversee on the Audit and Budget Board.
Greg Kisela
City Attorney

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From: Ted Noftall [mailto:Ted@TedNoftall.com]

Good morning Robin,
I was pleased to learn at  last evening Council meeting  that Finance does indeed track revenue and expenses—profit and loss,  on water and sewer business it conducts outside the city limits,  AND THAT  major supply purchases such as were discussed in last evenings change orders are not expensed as made but rather are booked into inventory.
In that regard please supply the following pursuant to Florida’s Freedom of Information statutes.

• *) Profit and loss for both water sales and sewer processing for the first half of the current fiscal year and for each of the previous 3 fiscal years, segmented as between the cities of Daytona Beach Shores and Ponce Inlet,   and the County of Volusia.

• *)  Screen shot of the general ledger inventory account(s)  indicating additions to and withdrawals  from,   along with the subsidiary ledger(s)  against which quantities are balanced against those General ledger dollar totals for each of the past 6 months.

Please call to discuss  if this material can be produced  in one manner vs another that is less time consuming for Finance staff.
This transmission is being made in my capacity as a private citizen,  and should not be construed as being made in any other.

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