Friday, April 3, 2009

A Finance Director Is Needed... Why?

Could the positions of City Administrator and Finance Director be combined? If the Finance Director has to "step up" to fulfill the role of Administrator in his absence, why is our Administrator unable to fulfill the role of the "subordinate" Finance Director position?
Finance Director Employee Position Description Here
What exactly does our City Administrator do for the $90K+ salary (with full benefits) he receives?
Incidentally, the Finance Director position pays another 80K+ with full benefits.

In the interest of saving money and covering our current $120,000 budget shortfall, is this a bad idea for a city of our size?

What About That State Audit?

We have been hearing from residents questioning the status of the State audit. Here is what we know today.

The audit was completed between November and January.
Centerville will be charged approximately $60 per hour for the investigation. We do not know how many hours will be billed.

The audit is currently under review.
Centerville will not be charged for the review process.

The review completion is done in multiple steps.
The audit of Cambridge was not released for nine months.
Link to audit Here
At this time we are waiting for a phone call from the State and have no inside information as to the approximate completion date.

Per Minnesota Statute 6.715
Data that support the conclusions of the report and that the state auditor reasonably believes will result in litigation are protected nonpublic data or confidential data on individuals, until the litigation has been completed or is no longer being actively pursued.
Link to statute Here

Whether the formal proceedings against a Centerville business is related to the audit or simply coincidence is unknown to us at this time.

CENTERSTONE TITLE LLC
Respondent created and controlled sham affiliated business arrangements; and provided other forms of kickbacks to referral partners in exchange for the referral of title insurance business.
Link to findings Here

Thank you to everyone that has supported the State audit. We will continue to do our best to keep you informed of our findings.
Have a great weekend!