Mukilteo finance staff seeks senior accountant to centralize grant billing and reduce delayed reimbursements

Anne Marie, speaking for the finance department, asked Mukilteo councilmembers to approve a new senior staff accountant position to centralize and professionalize grant billing and fiscal tracking.

She said that after the city began expending larger federal awards (including ARPA funds), timely quarterly billing and reimbursement filings became required and that some grant invoices had not been billed promptly: "I just approved 6 invoices for payment for expenditures going back to December 2024 that have not been reimbursed," she said. The proposed senior staff accountant would set up grant fiscal processes, prepare quarterly reimbursement requests and help apply allowable labor and benefit costs to grants.

Anne Marie provided a proposed cost split for the new position: 50% stormwater (because that program holds many grants), 25% capital projects and 25% general fund. She also asked to reclassify two existing positions as "accounting specialist" to allow cross‑training and reduce out‑of‑class pay; she said the net ongoing salary change for that reclassification would be modest (about $1,154 per year).

Why it matters: improving fiscal grant management can reduce delayed reimbursements, protect award funding and limit the risk of audit findings for untimely reporting.

Next steps: staff said they will return with formal job descriptions and cost details; councilmembers asked clarifying questions about how much reimbursement the city may have left unclaimed and whether staff time is billable to existing grants.