HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes_GGAF_03.07.2014 Minutes of the Meeting of the
GENERAL GOVERNMENT AND FINANCE ADVISORY BOARD (GGAF)
City of Georgetown, Texas
March 7, 2014
These minutes were unanimously approved at the April 23, 2014 GGAF Meeting.
The General Government and Finance Advisory Board met at 2:00 p.m. on Friday, March 7, 2014 in the
Georgetown City Hall Main Floor Conference Room, located at 113 East 8th Street, Georgetown, Texas.
MEMBERS PRESENT: Steve Fought, Chair, Tommy Gonzalez, Joe Pondrom, Keith Brainard, Ralph Mason
MEMBERS ABSENT: None
STAFF PRESENT: Micki Rundell, Susan Morgan, Leticia Zavala, James Davis, Mike Peters, Bridget
Chapman, Lindsay Daniell, Jodi Levie, Jerry McMillon
A copy of these minutes, containing detailed information on the items listed below will be available in the Finance
and Administration Office, located at 113 East 8th Street, Georgetown, TX and can be found online at
http://agendas.georgetown.org/
Executive Session
In compliance with the Open Meetings Act, Chapter 551, Government Code, Vernon’s Texas Codes, Annotated, the
items listed below will be discussed in closed session and are subject to action in the regular session that follows.
Regular Session – Called to order at 2:00 p.m.
The GGAF Board may, at any time, recess the Regular Session to convene an Executive Session at the request of the
Chair of the GGAF Committee for any purpose authorized by the Open Meetings Act, Texas Government Code
Chapter 551.)
Public Wishing to Address Council
On a subject that is posted on this agenda: Please fill out a speaker registration form. Clearly print your name and
the letter of the item on which you wish to speak and present it to the Chair or Board Liaison, preferably prior to the
start of the meeting. You will be called forward to speak when the Board considers that item.
On a subject not posted on the agenda: Persons may add an item to a future Board agenda by contacting the Liaison
prior to the creation of the agenda for the following meeting, with the subject matter of the topic they would like to
address and their name. The Board Liaison can be reached at 512-930-3676 or by email at
danella.elliott@georgetown.org
Statutory Consent Agenda
The Statutory Consent Agenda includes non-controversial and routine items that Board may act on with one single
vote. A board member may pull any item from the Consent Agenda in order that the Board discuss and act upon it
individually as part of the Regular Agenda.
Legislative Regular Agenda
Steve Fought, Chair, introduced Ralph Mason, the newest GGAF Citizen Member. Mr. Mason told a little
about himself and everyone welcomed him to the committee.
A. Review minutes from the March 7, 2014 GGAF Meeting - Danella Elliott, Executive Assistant
The minutes were unanimously approved.
B. Review and discussion of the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report and results of the audit for Fiscal
Year Ended, September 30, 2013 – Micki Rundell, Chief Financial Officer, Susan Morgan, CPA, Finance
Director and Lisa Haines, Controller
Susan Morgan gave a presentation/overview of the results of the City’s Comprehensive Annual Financial
Report (CAFR) for the Fiscal Year Ended September 30, 2013.
Susan introduced Jerry McMillon, CPA, the City’s external Auditor, with the firm of CliftonlLarsonAllen, LLP.
He discussed the results of the auditors’ independent audit of the CAFR, compliance with auditing standards,
testing over internal controls and fraud risk assessment and conduct required communication under auditing
standards with the committee. Mr. McMillon noted that there were no issues and the City received a clean
opinion in all aspects. Mr. Brainard asked if he had any cause or concern in any areas; he replied “no”.
The committee will be asked to take action to recommend that Council accept the September 30, 2013 CAFR at
the March 11, 2014 regular council meeting.
Unanimously approved.
C. Consideration and possible action to approve the renewal of printer and Multi Function Printer (MFP)
maintenance contracts through TLC Office Systems for $66,960.96 – James Davis, IT Operations
Manager
James Davis noted that he is requesting renewal of merged maintenance contracts for network printers and
Multi Function Printer devices for a period of one year. Originally printer and MFP maintenance contracts were
separated between IT and Facilities. IT is now handling both maintenance contracts and merging them into a
single contract. This reduces administrative resources required to manage and maintain two separate contracts.
The contracts are tied to the total life of the machines, which currently is a six-year useful life for the MFPs. IT
will continue monitor accordingly.
TLC Office Systems is a Texas Department of Information Resources (DIR) vendor. This renewal was
budgeted as part of the FY 2014 budget process. Expenses will be recorded in account 570-5-0641-51-341
Unanimously approved.
D. Discussion and possible recommendation to renew a contract for utility bill printing and mailing services
with Dataprose, and approve funding at an annual cost of $220,000 – Leticia Zavala, Customer Care
Manager and Micki Rundell, Chief Financial Officer
Leticia explained that the City has traditionally used an inter-local agreement with the City of Plano to benefit
from volume pricing and their Request for Proposal (RFP) process to award the utility bill printing and mailing
service contract. The City has had much success with the City of Plano’s vendor, Dataprose, and would like to
continue utilizing their services. The City of Plano was able to secure a lower contract price due to their
monthly volume which exceeds 100,000 bills per month. Plano’s new contract is effective February 2014 and
the City is eligible for the new rates. The rates secured by Plano are less than the rates the City could secure on
their own without incurring the cost of preparing and releasing a RFP.
Individually, the City of Georgetown processes and mails 28,000 – 30,000 bills (including late notices) per
month. With the inclusion of the Chisholm Trail Special Utility District (CTSUD) customers, the number will
increase to between 36,000 – 38,000 bills (including late notices) per month.
Our goal is to continue to provide and market an email option for customer bill presentment. This option was
released in June 2012 and has grown to include 3,100 participants or 11% of our customer base. This option
allows us to mitigate the rising cost of postage by eliminating the postage for that segment of the customer base.
With the new City of Plano pricing, we will pay around $0.50 per bill which is a decrease from last year’s cost
of $0.53 per bill. The printing and insertion costs will average $0.10 and the postage costs will average $0.40.
Eighty percent (80%) of the estimated annual contract cost of $220,000 is related to postage expense and
equates to $176,000. The total cost for bill printing and insertion is $44,000.
The total appropriation requested for this year is $220,000 and is calculated as follows:
Customer Care: (30,000 (bills/month) x .50 (rate) x 12 (months)) = $180,000
CTSUD: ( 8,000 (bills/month) x .50 (rate) x 10 (months)) = $ 40,000
This Customer Care expense of $180,000 is funded in the 2013-2014 Customer Care budget, under Contracts
and Leases GL#540-5-0321-51-310 in the Joint Services Fund. The CTSUD portion of $40,000 will be
reimbursed by CTSUD.
Unanimously approved
E. Discussion and possible recommendation to authorize payment of fees to Tyler Technologies for online
web account management and payment processing in the amount of $84,500 – Leticia Zavala, Customer
Care Manager and Micki Rundell, Chief Financial Officer
Leticia noted that Insite is the City’s online account management and payment processing application that
allows customers to manage their utility and municipal court accounts via our website. Real time account data
provides customers with instant access to accurate billing and account information that is automatically
integrated with our existing Incode Customer Information System (CIS) software. Customers have the ability to
access and pay their bill online 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, giving them the ability to manage their account
on their own schedule. Benefits to the City include increased collection rates, improved productivity, and
increased efficiency through integrated automation with our existing software.
Customer Care processes approximately 26,800 total payments per month and web payments account for 15%
of the total processed. We received approximately 4,000 payments per month through the website in 2013, up
from about 3,700 per month the prior year. With the inclusion of the Chisholm Trail Special Utility District
(CTSUD) customers, the number will increase by 1,000 per month based on their payment history. A basis of
5,000 payments per month will be used for the calculation.
The above cost includes web publishing fees, customer inquiry fees, and transaction fees, broken down in the
schedule below:
Web Publishing / Municipal Court $ 900
Customer Inquiry / Municipal Court $ 900
Web Publishing / Customer Care $ 600
Customer Inquiry / Customer Care $ 9,600
Transaction Fees / Customer Care $ 60,000 (4,000/month X 12 X $1.25)
Transaction Fees / CTSUD $ 12,500 (1,000/month X 10 X $1.25)
$ 84,500
The Web Publishing fees and the Customer Inquiry fees are a fixed annual cost. The transaction fees are
$1.25 each and based on the number of payments taken through the website.
The total cost for this service is $84,500. The portion allocated to Customer Care is $72,000 and equates to
0.5% of the total online utility revenue collected through the website in 2013. It is funded in the 2013-2014
Customer Care budget line item #540-5-0338-51-340 in the Joint Services Fund. The CTSUD portion of
$12,500 will be reimbursed by CTSUD.
F. Discussion and possible action to set meeting times and location for the monthly meetings of the General
Government and Finance Advisory Board – Steve Fought, GGAF Chair
The committee wanted to revisit the times/location for the monthly GGAF meetings to ensure it is convenient
for the current committee members. Steve asked Danella and Micki to find a location that was easily accessible
to the public in case they wanted to attend the GGAF Meetings, and there would be a “standard” location that
was predictable for every meeting. The Committee prefers the meetings to be held in the Public Library, which
is accessible and parking is ample.
The committee decided that any time from 2:00 pm and later would be ideal to hold the meetings.
Danella and Micki will try to get the future GGAF meetings scheduled at the Library during the preferred time
frame.
Unanimously approved.
G. Discussion and possible action to recommend soliciting new independent auditors for the 2013/14 fiscal
year end audit – Micki Rundell, Chief Financial Officer
Staff recommends that the GGAF Subcommittee direct staff to solicit proposals from qualified firms of certified
public accountants to audit the City of Georgetown’s financial statements for 3 years beginning with the fiscal
year ending September 30, 2014, with the option of auditing the City of Georgetown’s financial statements for
up to two subsequent fiscal years. The expected timeline is as follows:
Request for qualifications issued March 12, 2014
Due date for proposals April 11, 2014
Presentations/interviews April 30, 2014 – regular GGAF meeting
Council selection of audit firm May 13, 2014
The RFQ’s will follow best practices as outlined by the Government Finance Officers Association, and as
professional services, will be focused on best qualifications, not pricing.
The City of Georgetown currently contracts with CliftonLarsonAllen, LLP to provide independent financial
audit services for the City. Under the current contract and City Fiscal and Budgetary policy, the City has the
ability to renew one additional year. However, due to service issues over the past two fiscal year audit periods,
staff recommends that Council not renew and pursue other auditors.
The GGAF Committee agreed with this proposal, and Steve asked that Keith Brainard, Tommy Gonzalez and
Ralph Mason be on the selection committee.
Unanimously approved.
Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 3:30 pm.
_____________________________________
Board Chair