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Audit flags Marina Yacht Harbor Fund accounting problems; tenants’ association disputes numbers and seeks repayment
Summary
A Budget Analyst report found decentralized revenue tracking, timeliness and reconciliation gaps, electricity double-charging and unclear labor allocations in the Marina Yacht Harbor Fund and proposed 21 recommendations expected to yield about $100,000/year if implemented; Marina users claim a $622,000 double-charge and want the money returned, a figure the analyst disputes.
The Audit & Oversight Committee held an extended hearing on May 5 on a management audit of the Marina Yacht Harbor Fund that identified four findings and 21 recommendations intended to strengthen revenue tracking, budgetary controls and project accounting.
Sevin Campbell of the Budget Analyst’s Office summarized the audit and told the committee the Marina’s revenue management is decentralized across up to 10 systems, including manual ledgers and Excel files, and that the fund’s temporary and miscellaneous berth fees (roughly $280,000 per year) were handled in cash without a formal receipt system. Campbell recommended automating revenue collection via full implementation of the CLASS cash-management system and instituting a cash-register function in the marina program.
Campbell said implementing the audit recommendations could increase revenues or result in savings of about $100,000 per year (based on 2006/07 data) but could also increase some expenditures to the fund by about $137,000 because of correctly allocating staff time and utility charges. The audit found work-hour and work-order entry practices that prevent the harbor master from seeing charges in real time and recommended developing systems for timely entry and reconciliation. The analyst also recommended distinguishing capital projects from routine maintenance so unspent maintenance funds return to fund balance.
A central point of dispute was how much the Marina was overcharged for utilities and overhead in prior years. Campbell’s budget analysis identified a $49,207 overcharge in certain direct electricity charges but, after netting adjustments, concluded the fund was undercharged by $57,585 in the current year. Representatives of the San Francisco Marina Harbor Association, including President Bruce Stone and Vice President Bruce Monroe, said their own analysis shows $622,000 in double charges and demanded that the amount be returned to the Harbor Trust to fund dredging and maintenance. "We do believe that $622,000 should be returned to the Harbor Trust," Stone said.
Rec & Park’s Katie Petruccione said the department agreed with many of the recommendations, sees the audit as timely ahead of planned marina renovations and will work with the Budget Analyst and the Controller’s Office to refine its cost allocation plan, including how electricity, water and garbage are charged. Petruccione also said the department intends to hire two gardeners dedicated to the marina and charge them to the Marina Fund, a point tenants and some supervisors raised concerns about because the Marina Greens is a public park heavily used by city residents.
Committee members asked staff and public representatives to reconcile the differing overcharge calculations offline; Supervisor Sophie Maxwell said legislation could follow from the audit. The committee tabled the matter for follow-up and further reconciliation.
