Committee adopts revised internal-audit plan after budget and priority changes

The Finance Committee on Sept. 8 approved a revised fiscal-year 2026 internal-audit plan that reprioritizes projects given changing departmental work and a reduced audit budget. The audit committee unanimously recommended the revisions before the finance committee vote. Deputy City Manager Andrea Phillips and Haley Garcia of Baker Tilly explained the changes: grants-management and cash-balances reviews were moved out of FY26 to allow the city’s new grants manager time to implement procedures; the procurement-process review was added; and policy-and-procedure support remains in the plan. The firm noted the original annual contract amount had been $190,000 but the approved FY26 budget for audit services was $150,000, requiring reprioritization. The procurement review will take a deeper look at the end-to-end procurement lifecycle and whether following the state procurement code is the most efficient approach for the city. The risk-management operational review and a recruitment-process review remain on the FY26 list. Deputy City Manager Phillips noted earlier enterprise risk assessments had identified these areas as high risk and the revised plan is intended to balance attention among them. Action and next steps: the committee approved the revised plan (motion passed). Staff said the audit committee (four members present) unanimously supported the revisions; Baker Tilly and city staff will proceed with the risk-management, procurement and recruitment reviews and will provide updates to the audit committee and finance committee as work progresses.