HomeMy WebLinkAboutNovember 7Finance and Investment Committee Special Meeting
Town of Los Altos Hills
Town Hall, Monday, November 7, 2012
The meeting was called to order at 4:00 pm by Chairman, Jean Mordo.
Members present: Kjell Karlsson, Jim Lai, Susan Mason, Stan Mok, Jean Mordo,
John Radford, Bill Silver and Roddy Sloss.
Members absent: Allan Epstein, Frank Lloyd
Staff present: Carl Cahill, Town Manager, Yulia Rasulova, Administrative
Services Director, Debbie Pedro, Building and Planning Director,
Richard Lee, Finance Manager, and Sarah Gualtieri, Parks and
Recreation staff
Public Present: John Harpootlian, Valerie Metcalfe and Gary Waldeck
(in audience)
Approval of minutes:
Minutes of the September 10, 2012 meeting were approved as submitted.
Westwind Barn review:
Yulia Rasulova made a presentation including an independent contractor checklist and a
hardcopy PowerPoint handout. Three issues were raised in the presentation. 1) Concern that
existing contractors at the Barn may not be considered independent contractors under IRS
guidelines; 2) A substantial budget overrun for the year is anticipated, and 3) Management of the
Barn is becoming an increasing burden for the Town. Supplementary comments were made by
Carl Cahill, Sarah Gualtieri and Valerie Metcalfe, a member of the Parks and Recreation
Committee. Barn operations, historical financial results and budget overruns were discussed. To
address these matters the following motion was made, seconded and unanimously approved by
all committee members present.
Town staff should study the following alternatives and report back to the Committee: 1) Flesh
out the ‘hybrid’ proposal 3 in the handout calling for an independent professional manager to
undertake responsibility for supervising all Barn operations with two variations a) with a live-in
onsite manager, and b) without a live-in on site manager; 2) estimate the financial effects of
putting the “year around riding program” out for bid; and 3) recommend alternatives for raising
rates and fees and quantify the expected results.
As a guideline to the staff in performing the aforementioned work, the two Council members on
the Committee indicated they would be willing to support an annual Barn subsidy of up to
$80,000 or $100,000. Alternatives if that goal cannot be reached were not discussed. Mr. Cahill
and Ms’ Pedro, Gualtieri and Metcalfe excused themselves from the meeting at this point.
Draft minutes – November 7, 2012 Finance and Investment Committee meeting, continued - 2
Report on Finance Department by Yulia Rasulova
In response to the Committee’s inquiry, Ms. Rasulova reported that she noted; issues with the
conversion to the Tyler accounting system related to budgetary accounts, some chart of accounts
duplication, classification of capital costs as repairs and maintenance, and the reporting and
maintenance of unnecessary financial statement funds such as using a Capital Fund for routine
activities supported by the General Fund. None of these items affected the accuracy of the
Town’s financial statements or budgets. She plans to confer with the Town’s auditors before
making related changes.
Ms. Rasulova’s priorities are: 1) completing the annual audit; 2) issuing interim financial reports
highlighting estimated to budget to actual differences for the 2013 fiscal year and 3) formalizing
five year plans for major capital expenditure programs.
Richard Lee reported the annual audit field work is scheduled for the week of November 19,
2013 and the annual CAFR report issuance is planned by December 31, 2012.
Status of updated Town fee study – Richard Lee
Town staff and the Committee thought it was advisable to have an independent fee study
performed. The staff will request quotes. Messrs. Epstein and Sloss will prepare a memo for
Town staff elaborating on comments described in the September 11, 2011 FIC meeting minutes
when the Matrix fee study was presented.
Report by Jean Mordo and John Radford on recent Council activities of interest:
Conversion of private roads to public roads will be discussed at the next Council meeting.
Expenditures to fix many of the sub-par private roads are in the hundreds of thousands of dollars
each, so the Council will have to look at a multi-year program to gradually accept selected
private roads. Additionally, future maintenance costs will have to be budgeted.
Presentations from the Floor:
None.
Proposed topics and dates for future meetings:
The next FIC regular meeting is scheduled for Monday, December 3, 2012 at 4pm. A Sewer
Fund presentation is planned.
Adjournment: The meeting adjourned at 5:50 pm
Respectfully submitted by Roddy Sloss, Committee Secretary