Finance director outlines accounting clean-up, reimbursement prospects and budget reporting corrections

The Ione finance director presented a year-to-date revenue and expense report on March 19 and described a program of accounting clean-up that has identified prior posting errors, missing invoices and recoverable reimbursements.

Staff said business-license revenue of $18,008.25 is recorded in transactions but not yet posted to the general ledger; the finance director explained ongoing work to reconcile payroll and health-insurance worksheets and to reclassify legacy postings. She said some line items showed as over- or under-spent due to longstanding worksheet and allocation issues rather than real overspending.

In response to public and council questions, staff clarified an earlier figure: the total related to Picnic Hill projects is $917,000, not $1,000,000. Staff also said they had identified that administrative fees paid for CFDs (David Taussig & Associates) are reclaimable from the trustee (U.S. Bank) and that the city expects to pursue reimbursements that could total in the low hundreds of thousands. The finance director said the team has been working to match AWA, CDCR and Caltrans billings and to close accruals as agencies complete their year-end reconciliations.

Council members pressed for clearer presentation of the staff report (suggesting a year-to-date budget column to show expected percent of annual budget elapsed) and asked when missing dispatch and AWA invoices would appear. Staff said many items will be corrected in the next report after posting journal entries and reconciling historical worksheets.

Public discussion also touched on the municipal pool and recreation program losses and whether budgeted losses were accurately reflected; staff said some revenues are seasonal and that accruals and postings will change the picture as entries are completed.

The council thanked staff for the work and asked that corrected reports be presented at future meetings.