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Audit committee moves to recommend Weaver as city's external auditor amid Workday transition
Summary
Staff recommended keeping incumbent Weaver for the city's external financial audit, citing continuity through the Workday implementation and a best-and-final price that ranked Weaver highest; the committee gave consensus to forward the recommendation to council for award.
The City of Garland audit committee received staff's recommendation to retain Weaver as the city's external audit firm and agreed to forward that recommendation to the City Council for consideration. Allison Lisonbee, the city's CFO, told the committee the RFP evaluation prioritized technical quality, responsiveness and price and that the top two firms were the incumbent Weaver and Forvis/Mazars.
"Our last RFP was in 2019, and the City was granted a 2 year RFP extension during our Workday Financial System implementation by this Audit Committee," Lisonbee said, summarizing why staff weighed continuity heavily. She and audit staff noted Weaver's deep experience with electric utilities in the ERCOT market, the city's complex fund structure and the staff time that would be required to onboard a firm unfamiliar with Garland's Workday configuration.
Staff described the standard contract structure used in the RFP: a one-year initial engagement with four optional annual renewals. The selection committee's scoring placed technical quality highest among evaluation criteria, and staff reported that two firms were roughly a point apart before interviews; Weaver submitted the lowest best-and-final price after interviews, the presentation said.
Committee members pressed staff about which Weaver personnel would be assigned. Staff said Weaver would retain the supervisory partner but rotate the engagement manager to provide a fresh perspective on the work. One committee member said that with a new manager assigned he was "fine with this recommendation." Lisa and Jed (audit staff) discussed training and knowledge-transfer items to limit staff burden during the audit.
City Manager Mike Betts and city attorney Scott Levine both indicated the recommendation complied with policy and law and supported staff's approach of continuity plus a rotated manager to safeguard independence. The committee asked staff to present the readout at the July 20 meeting and to bring the award to council on July 21 so staff can begin audit work before the fiscal year end on Sept. 30.
No formal committee vote on the audit firm was recorded in the transcript; the committee reached consensus to forward the staff recommendation to the City Council.
