Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Finance Privacy topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Finance staff recommends not publishing check‑by‑check payee lists to limit fraud risk
Summary
Carla recommended the commission and city council stop including detailed check payee lists in public packets, citing Minnesota GFOA guidance and state law that does not require publishing check-level details; the commission agreed staff will provide a summary total instead.
Carla (finance) reported on guidance from the Minnesota Government Finance Officers Association and recommended that the commission and city council stop publishing packet-level lists that identify individual check payees.
"I'm suggesting that both water and light and city council that we do not publicize who the checks go to. We will send them to the boards and to the council so you can see the list of checks. But we don't wanna publicize it and that is following state law that we do not have to publicize," Carla said, noting fraud concerns tied to publishing check numbers and payee sequences.
Carla proposed instead providing boards and council with the list directly (not in the public packet) and offering a summary total in the publicly posted packet. Commissioners responded that the suggestion "makes sense." No formal policy vote was taken; staff said they will implement the change in packet handling going forward.
Why it matters: the change affects transparency practices for financial reporting and is intended to reduce fraud risk by limiting public disclosure of check-level details.
