Minutes - Council Work Session - 08/18/2008

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Councilmember Strommen stated that one thing she would not like to see is a political office located in the building. She stated that this was done in Hugo and felt it was very strange. Finance Officer Lund stated that the largest portion of the proposed 2009 Finance budget is for the audit. Councilmember Dehen asked if every City gets "tubed" like Ramsey does in audit costs. Finance Officer Lund stated that conducting an audit is mandatory and our audit firm was actually one of the lowest bids that came in. Councilmember Strommen stated that audits are expensive and noted that for her non-profit that has only 12 employees, they paid $10,000 to $15,000 for their last audit. Councilmember Dehen asked ifthere was a way to perform the audit internally. Finance Officer Lund stated that even if the City had an internal auditor on staff, an external audit would still be required. She stated that another big jump this year is for Assessing. She stated that the. contract was signed in April for next year and shows an increase of 19% for residential and 33% for commercial assessments. She stated that some cities have their own in- house assessors, but it is cheaper for the City to outsource to the County because they will also handle the phone calls of people calling to complain about their assessments. She stated that there was such a large jump because the rates had not been changed since 2002. She stated that Legal Services has increased a bit because there are more abatement services in the City and City Attorney Goodrich has increased his rates a bit to $102/hour. Councilmember Dehen asked if the Legal Services covered the costs for Briggs and Morgan. He stated that the issue he has with them is that instead of an itemized bill, they submit a paragraph explaining what they did. Finance Officer Lund stated that their costs are covered by the project they are working on. She noted that they have started submitting itemized bills. Councilmember Dehen asked what happens when abatement costs are assessed, but the money isn't paid. Finance Officer Lund stated that the property can go to tax forfeiture after 3 years. City Administrator Ulrich stated that there are carrying costs for the period of years when assessments are not paid. Councilmember Dehen stated that he feels there are costs that the City should be able to recoup, such as transcript costs for abatement hearings Police Chief Way stated that he needs City Attorney Goodrich's opinion, because he isn't sure that the City can charge someone more money, just because they would like to have a hearing. City Council Work Session I Monday, August 18, 2008 Page 7 of 12