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Finance committee reviews $50,000 recruitment allocation and questions unapproved $2,000 payment
Summary
Committee members discussed a budget revision adding $50,000 from sales-tax revenue to pay for city-manager recruiting and raised concern that a roughly $2,000 payment for a recent service may have been engaged without council approval; staff said some services were contracted but payments had not yet been posted.
Finance staff outlined budget revision 5, which carries a $50,000 increase in sales-tax revenue earmarked to pay for city-manager recruiting services and several small internal transfers funded from contingencies.
"The council directed us to do that in order to pay for the city manager recruiting services," Laurie, the city's financial director, told the committee when she walked through the revision.
Several members focused on a contested $2,000 line item. One committee member said the expenditure and the presentation tied to it were new to the council and had not been approved there; the chair sought to record for the minutes that money had been spent without council authorization. "For the record is money was expended, but it was not approved by the city council to expend," the chair said.
Laurie said she would verify timing and payment status: "We haven't paid it yet," she said at one point, then later noted the city had "engaged in the service" and that some bills had not been submitted yet. Another committee member defended the staff action on policy grounds: under the city's financial policies, purchases under $5,000 can be authorized by staff.
The committee did not take a formal vote on the revision during the meeting; members said they could forward the revision to the council with reservations. One member said they would not support the revision as-is. Committee members asked staff to provide updated supporting documentation and to place clearer notes in the revision to show where contingency funds and account numbers were being used.
Next steps: staff will verify whether the $2,000 service was billed or paid, update the revision notes and account numbers, and provide materials for the council to consider. The finance committee left its recommendation conditional and expected to send the revision to council with any reservations noted.
