Finance director reports clean audits, staffing update and overtime reporting challenges

Jess, the finance department head, briefed the council on the department's recent work and the Capital Review Committee's role in preparing enterprise budgets. She said the city had another year of successful audits and monitoring visits with no findings and noted improved grant and audit processes.

Jess confirmed the department hired a new accounts-receivable coordinator in October who has supported utility-billing cycles and stormwater utility work. She also described the challenge of complying with new federal qualified-overtime reporting rules implemented for 2025: the city's payroll system lacks the required reporting fields, forcing manual Excel tracking of qualified overtime and significant staff time to assemble end-of-year reports. Jess said peer communities and professional associations helped develop interim approaches and the department is training staff on new budgeting software (Questica) and fixed asset inventory work ahead of year-end audit.