Council directs staff to negotiate with second-ranked audit firm as FY25 audit remains incomplete

Deputy city manager Josh McNeil briefed the governing body July 21 on the procurement process for annual audit services and the status of the citys FY25 audit, and council provided direction to staff about next steps in the selection process.

McNeil described a competitive RFP run in March that produced six responsive proposals; an internal evaluation committee scored proposals against criteria laid out in the RFP, interviewed the two highest-ranking firms, and prepared documentation for the governing body. He said staff did not include price in the technical scoring but collected pricing information to use during negotiations.

The council spent significant time discussing the FY25 audit, which remains incomplete. McNeil and the auditors representative told the dais that bank reconciliations and data-integration challenges following implementation of a new tax-collection system (Infinity/Avenity) complicated the audit. McNeil said the city provided bank reconciliations in June and that staff and auditors are working toward preliminary testing and a target completion date of August 31.

Several council members expressed concern about the timeline and vendor performance. One council member proposed proceeding with the second-highest scoring firm; the body reached consensus to direct staff to begin negotiations with that firm and to continue work to complete the FY25 audit. Council and staff also discussed the importance of including performance provisions in future contracts; McNeil said past engagements had relied primarily on engagement letters and that the current procurement is intended to remedy that.

The governing body did not finalize a contract at the meeting but provided direction that staff should negotiate with the second-ranked proposer and return with contract documents and any necessary approvals.