Goodyear audit committee reports progress on internal audit program; payroll report yields 70 tactical recommendations

Jared (Finance Director and secretary to the audit committee) updated council on the city’s internal audit program and the first audit work at the June 16 meeting, reporting that the city auditor recruitment closed in May and finalist interviews were underway with an expected July start date. "Our expectation is that we want to have a July start date for that position," Jared said.

Jared described the audit committee — Council Members Hampton (chair), Gillis (vice chair) and Terry — and summarized recent committee activity, including bylaws, an interim audit plan and the decision to present two early studies to establish process cadence. "We've met four times in about two and a half months," he said.

The first third‑party assessment, completed by Protiviti, reviewed payroll and timekeeping processes from onboarding to offboarding. Protiviti’s assessment took about five months, involved interviews across departments and generated three broad recommendation categories: standardize processes, automate systems and optimize the payroll system. Jared said the report contained 12 recommendation themes and 70 tactical recommendations; management provided a response and completion timelines for each item, with many foundational steps scheduled through late 2025 and into 2026.

Key operational notes included the city’s current use of multiple timekeeping systems — Executime (most staff), Telestaff (police and fire) and SubItUp (parks part‑time staff) — and a plan to assess needs for consolidation. The assessment also recommended improved cross‑department communication, clearer employee guidance for paycheck inquiries, standardized timelines for payroll tasks, enhanced compliance tracking and expanded access to systems for part‑time employees to eliminate parallel manual processes.

Council members asked about auditor reporting lines and authority; staff and the city attorney noted that making the auditor report directly to council would require a charter change and voter approval. Council asked for clarity on who would direct audit work and for mechanisms to avoid conflicts of interest as the program develops. The audit committee scheduled follow‑up on payroll recommendations for August 25 and plans to bring the new internal auditor and an annual audit plan to the committee after hire.