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Finance committee selects Tyler ERP, reports 3.2% sales tax decline and clean 2023 audit
Summary
The council's finance committee reported choosing Tyler as the city's enterprise resource program vendor, noted a 3.2% drop in sales tax revenue, and said state auditors issued no written recommendations from the 2023 audit.
At the Jan. 13 council meeting the finance committee reported it has selected Tyler for the city's new enterprise resource planning (ERP) software and said the city experienced a roughly 3.2% decline in sales tax revenue year over year.
Councilmember Bolton reported the finance committee (which met Jan. 9) included Councilmember Cleland McGrath, Finance Director Steve Hoagland and Accountant Rhonda Peck. Bolton said staff and consultants had evaluated multiple vendors and chose Tyler, which she said "stood head and shoulders above the rest." She added staff had brought in other companies late in the procurement to validate the decision.
Bolton told the council the city has one senior accountant leaving; the position will remain authorized in the budget but will not be immediately filled, and department workload has been redistributed in the interim. She said the committee discussed a 3.2% overall decline in sales tax collections and that Finance Director Hoagland recommended a 1% property tax increase to balance the proposed budget; fees for services were proposed to increase by a little over 2% as part of balancing measures.
Bolton also said the Washington State auditors completed the 2023 audit and that the city received high marks with no written recommendations. She said the finance department will present a full finance update to council and the public on Jan. 21.
The committee report was informational; no formal budget adoption occurred at the Jan. 13 meeting.
