Finance director gives 'Sound Fiscal Stewardship' update, highlights transparency tools and operational metrics

Rochelle Matthews, the city’s director of finance, presented a strategic update on the Sound Fiscal Stewardship commitment area at the March 4 Lawrence City Commission meeting, outlining how finance functions support capital projects, operations and transparency.

Matthews described five core areas: financial reporting, procurement services, utility billing, investment management and debt management. She said the city produces an annual comprehensive financial audit and a popular annual financial report, maintains online portals for budget and vendor transparency, and uses dedicated funds and revenue streams to match long‑term debt service to projects.

Key operational numbers Matthews provided for 2024 include: the utility billing team issued more than 425,000 utility bills, started service for over 8,500 customers and handled about 38,000 customer service phone calls; procurement and contracting work included more than 580 purchase orders and 521 contracts; the city paid over 25,000 invoices, generated roughly 400 billing documents and posted about 15,000 journal entries during the year. She also noted the city completed a major ERP and payroll transition, implemented advanced metered infrastructure (AMI) for hourly meter reads, and launched an online dumpster rental system.

Matthews highlighted awards and audit results: the city earned the Government Finance Officers Association “Triple Crown” for excellence in the comprehensive financial report, the popular annual report, and the budget book for fiscal 2023, and the city has a ten‑year history of unmodified (clean) audit opinions.

Looking ahead, Matthews said procurement staff is preparing to move to a web‑based bidding platform to standardize and streamline solicitations and that utility billing plans a new customer portal to increase online services. She also said the finance team will monitor new Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) pronouncements that could affect reporting in coming audits.

Commissioners asked about the LEAD employee program, the practical benefits of recent technology investments and whether the proposed procurement platform is a necessary expense; Matthews and Assistant Finance Director Jennifer Worth answered process and timeline questions and said the new systems are expected to improve efficiency and reduce manual work over time. No formal action was taken on the presentation; commissioners thanked staff for the update.