City auditor adds quick-response audit team, plans peer and pension actuarial reviews

The City Auditor and deputy told the council committee that the audit office created a quick-response audit team this year to perform focused, time-limited audits and to increase responsiveness to urgent issues. The office released its first quick-response product on timeliness of payments in April.

"A quick response audit is a single issue audit with a narrow focus that's designed to address a limited objective relatively quickly," the auditor said, describing the new methodology and revised report format.

The office plans a peer review in mid-July to assess quality-control systems required under government auditing standards and expects to schedule an actuarial audit of the city's three defined-pension plans; that actuarial audit is required by city code every three years, the auditor said, and was delayed while the city cleaned pension data.

The audit office reported 20 approved positions, four vacancies in February (one hire expected in June) and recent turnover: four of six hires in the prior 12 months are no longer with the office. The auditor cited market pressures and remote-work preferences as factors affecting retention and said succession planning will be a major FY26 focus.

On budget, the audit office said the proposed FY26 general-fund budget represents a 4.6% increase over the current year and does not fully fund all approved positions. The office requested increases to contracted services to help with succession planning but noted that the current proposal is about 3% less than requested.

The presentation was informational; no formal votes or actions were taken.