Saint Paul audit committee drops College Bound and advances district council reform, business licensing and street maintenance for council review

The City of Saint Paul Audit Committee voted to remove the College Bound topic from its next-round recommendations and to advance three ‘‘buckets’’—district council reform, business licensing and street/street-repair maintenance—for the full City Council to choose two.

Chair Nyka made the motion after committee staff and department leaders told members that an immediate audit of College Bound would be premature. Nyka corrected an earlier misstatement about College Bound at the meeting, saying the program uses automatic enrollment for newborns and that parents may add funds.

Mr. McVay, the committee’s presenter, told members that interviews with four departments showed broad interest in audit work but reluctance to undergo a review in the current calendar year, citing new department leadership, limited staff capacity and data concerns. ‘‘They generally expressed a preference for a latter half of 2027’’ for many audits, McVay said, while adding that narrowly scoped audits could proceed sooner.

Members pressed on which topics could be studied now. Council Member Johnson said the College Bound team appears to be doing its own evaluation work and did not express strong support for an audit at this time. Council Member Coleman and others said Public Works is undertaking internal reviews and worried a committee audit could duplicate staff efforts; several members suggested a partnership framing to add value rather than duplicate work.

The committee also discussed Development Services & Inspections (DSI) issues and the City’s new Poly rollout. Members agreed it would be unhelpful to audit functions that are still being implemented by Poly and that any inquiry into building-code fees should avoid areas currently in litigation. McVay noted that some business licenses may be antiquated and that Saint Paul regulates more than 300 license types, raising the prospect of a targeted review of alignment with state standards.

Chair Nyka read a written recommendation from Director (Dr.) Britt advising against prioritizing College Bound and suggesting district council reform, business licensing and building-code operations (with street maintenance called out as critical) as near-term topics with staff buy-in.

After discussion, Nyka moved to eliminate College Bound and forward district council reform, business licensing and street/street-repair maintenance as the three buckets for the City Council to choose two. The motion was adopted by voice vote; the chair stated, ‘‘Aye,’’ and declared the motion passed.

Next steps: the committee will refine the scope of the recommended topics, consult with colleagues at the full council and return a resolution asking the council to select two topics and authorize scope work by staff.