Hoover finance update: new hires and training underway after Crowell review; payroll and reconciliations targeted for Q2

Hoover City finance staff provided a quarterly update to the Hoover City Council on Jan. 21 on progress addressing the findings of the Crowell review, reporting new leadership hires and training programs while signaling remaining work on payroll reconciliation and payroll-tax reporting.

The update, delivered by Ms. Cornett of the finance department, said two leadership positions—general ledger manager and payroll manager—were filled in early December. The new general ledger manager, Brad Nestor, was described as bringing more than 25 years of accounting experience; Amber Salter joined as payroll manager and the city also rehired a provisional employee with historical knowledge of the general ledger. Ms. Cornett said the city has active recruitments for a revenue auditor and an accounts-payable specialist and plans to hire another accountant by March. She said she will return at midyear to request a financial-analyst position that had been discussed during the last budget cycle.

Ms. Cornett told the council the finance team has completed performance appraisals, is creating individualized training plans, and is preparing “process narratives” intended to record step-by-step procedures in payroll, general ledger and revenue. She said those narratives will support the drafting of revised purchasing and travel policies and that final draft policies are expected to be presented to the council by the end of March 2025.

The city also reported work on the Munis enterprise system. Ms. Cornett said an investment assessment of Munis’s payroll module is scheduled for the end of the month to determine whether and how the city is using the software fully; the city will evaluate options for the human-resources module and expects to have an implementation plan by the end of the second quarter of 2025.

On reconciliations and payroll-tax reporting, Ms. Cornett said the city established a reconciliation process in Q2 of 2024 and has since filed corrected quarterly payroll-tax returns where necessary. She said a small number of prior-quarter items remain and the city’s outside payroll partner, BMSS, is working to resolve issues caused when automatic IRS applications of overpayments shifted balances between quarters. The finance staff’s goal is to complete delayed reconciliations and close remaining payroll-tax matters by the end of Q2 2025.

Council members thanked Ms. Cornett for the recurring quarterly reports and asked that revenue information be returned to the council at its first March meeting to reflect holiday-season collections. Ms. Cornett confirmed January data would be available for that March presentation.

Ms. Cornett concluded by saying the finance department is emphasizing manager-level review, cross-training and continuous improvement as safeguards after the Crowell review.