Fort Walton Beach Council agenda — 10-22-2007 special agenda — reading text

governmental regulations. The Department administers the General Employees Pension Plan and oversees the Police and Fire Pension Plans. 5. 1 Oraanization and Staffina The Finance Department currently has two sub- units: Accounting and Customer Services. Next year, the City plans to move the budget function from the City Manager to Finance. There are four ( 4) full time people in Accounting and nine ( 9) full time employees in Customer Service. The Finance Director and an Administrative Coordinator serve as the management team for the department. The Administrative Coordinator prepares the departmental pay sheets. There are no part- time employees or volunteers in this department. Exhibit 5- 1 on the following page represents the current structure as noted in the recommended City budget. It reflects the City Manager' s recommended title changes and movement of positions. As noted in Section 2. 0, City Manager, the current organization structure presented in the recommended budget should be modified to reflect a direct reporting relationship of the Finance Director to the City Manager, rather than to the City Council. The reasons for this recommendation are identified in Section 2. 0. Alternative Services Delivery Study for Fort Walton Beach, Florida Page 5- 1  Finance Exhibit 5- 1 Finance Current Chart CITY COUNCIL FINANCE DIRECTOR ( 1) ADMINISTRATIVE COORDINATOR 1) BUDGET AND CUSTOMER COMPTROLLER GRANTS SERVICE 1) MANAGER ( 1) ADMINISTRATOR 1) SENIOR ACCOUNTING ACCOUNTING ACCOUNTING METER SERVICE ACCOUNTANT ( 1) ACCOUNTANT ( 2) TECH 11( 1) TECH II ( 3) TECH I ( 3) WORKER ( 2) Accounting: The turnover in the Accounting unit during FY ' 07 exceeded the City- wide turnover rate, affecting the Department's ability to accomplish its many functions. The functions include: accounting; preparing the annual accounting reports; monitoring funds to be sure that none have a negative balance; accounts payable so that all invoices are paid correctly in a timely Alternative Services Delivery Study for Fort Walton Beach, Florida Page 5-2  Finance manner; half of accounts receivable; pre- audit that ensures that vouchers are consistent with the budget; help in preparing the annual budget; preparation of any special assessments; capital financing including preparing bonds and ensuring that the City has the lowest bond rating possible; preparing capital projects; treasury management; debt service funding; cash management of golf and maintaining their statistics; management of payroll including pensions for retirees; sending quarterly and annual reports to state and federal governments; manage the City self funded dental plan; manage any child support and chapter 13 demands; process all budget transfers and second level purchase request approvals; post all cash for the city; adjust journal entries; monitor city employee travel documentation; process monthly sales tax; verify employee time sheets and employment; and, accounting of employee benefits including, FICA, Medicare, heath, dental, AFLAC, vision, and retirement. Alternative Services Delivery Study for Fort Walton Beach, Florida Page 5-3  Finance The department uses on- line banking and cuts 64 checks out of 460 on a monthly basis. Customer Services: The Customer Services unit is much more stable and its functions focus on collecting money from citizens for the many City activities. Functions for this unit include: manage the other half of accounts receivables; read utility meters; bill and collect money for water, sewer, garbage, utility tax, business and occupation taxes; collect money from citizens; collect money from miscellaneous receipts such as building permits, zoning permits, code violations, collect money from other departments including police, golf, parks and recreation, the library, senior citizens center, and the museum; manage money for the City cemetery; and, handle all the billing for the City of Cinco Bayou and HAZMAT. This unit processes a minimum of $ 2, 000 per day but it can be more than 154,000 in a day. For example, a franchise fee collection can be $ 400, 000 in a day. This unit also is responsible for the City switchboard. The collections function is contracted out to M. J. Atman, Inc.. Alternative Services Delivery Study for Fort Walton Beach, Florida Page 5-4  Finance 5.2 Maior Policies and Ooerationallssues Too Many Activities for Existing Staff The Finance Department, especially the Accounting unit, is overworked, with the result that additional overtime is needed. The Department is experiencing turnover of staff, which is affecting the preparation of fundamental accounting reports. Compensation levels for accounting positions ( at all levels) may be an issue and should be checked relative to the market. In addition, they are routinely expected to work 60 to 80 hours in a week. Departmental Professionalism The accounting profession has strong professional expectations and those expectations need to be met. There is some budgeted money ($ 20, 000 for General Fund employees) available for training to keep up with evolving professional requirements. In particular, Finance staff needs to keep up with new government accounting standards. This is partly done through attendance at Florida GFOA meetings, but may not be sufficient. Currently, there is no certified public accountant on staff. The upcoming budget recommends 10 CPE credits per person per year. Formal training on IT does not exist for the staff; and yet, in accounting, IT is essential to achieve significant productivity gains for the City. Performance Data Performance data collected by the City does exist but it is not yet as comprehensive as desired. Performance measures in this Department, as well as others, need to be consistent with the Strategic Plan. Meter Readers There are only two ( 2) Meter Readers with no back- up process in place. Meter Readers could and do collect other City data. For example, they can help on code Alternative Services Delivery Study for Fort Walton Beach, Florida Page 5-5  Finance enforcement and give useful information to the police and fire departments. The information system being used is not user friendly and there is concern over the accuracy of the data. This function could be contracted with a private service. 5.3 Alternative Service Deliverv Options Accountant Compensation and Training of the Finding: Compensation for the Accountant positions may be one reasons for turnover in the department. There should be a determination as to whether the compensation levels for accounting positions are indeed competitive or not. A spot check of the City' s targeted would be in making such determination and possible internal market helpful a adjustment. Recommendation # 14: Human Resources should determine the current market rate in the area for accounting related positions. In addition, additional training funds for the Finance Department need to be set aside so that accounting professionals can obtain training to upgrade and maintain their expertise. Transfer Functions to Third Parties Finding: Certain finance functions may be completed by banks or private providers. Banks or other private parties, under contract to the City, could do many of the functions in the Finance Department. For example, 99% of the cutting and mailing of checks could be done by the City' s bank. Recommendation # 15: A systematic effort should be made to transfer as and secondly to one or more many finance activities as possible first to the bank control but private contractors. The Finance Department needs to maintain financial Alternative Services Delivery Study for Fort Walton Beach, Florida Page 5-6  Finance the actual completion of routine finance activities should be done outside of the