Memorandum

City of Lawrence

City Auditor

TO:	Members of the City Commission
FROM:	Michael Eglinski, City Auditor
CC:	David L. Corliss, City Manager Cynthia Boecker, Assistant City Manager Diane Stoddard, Assistant City Manager Jonathan Douglas, Assistant to the City Manager
Date:	March 19, 2009
RE:	City Auditor Update: Recommendation Follow-Up; Citizen Input on Potential Audit Topics; Work In-Progress

Recommendation follow-up

The City Code requires following-up on audit recommendations. See Audit Recommendation Follow-Up March 2009

Citizen input on potential audit topics

Citizen input on potential audit topics generated 24 submissions with 35 specific suggestions.  Citizens could provide input anonymously through an on-line form on the city’s web page beginning January 15.  Most of the submissions came in the first two days the form was available.

The table summarizes the topics with notes about how a performance audit might address each topic

Suggestion Summary	Possible performance audit approach
Budget options - reduce spending on downtown	Identify potential budget savings from reduced spending and proponent and opponent positions.
Budget options - salary freeze	Identify the potential budget savings from a salary freeze and the proponent and opponent positions.
City vehicles - take home vehicles, purchase process and options	Review compliance with existing policies and procedures on take-home vehicles; and evaluate fleet management practices.
Codes - staffing levels	Evaluate the workload and staffing levels for the codes function.
Controls over city art purchases	Evaluate controls over the city's process for purchasing art.
Controls over financial reconciliations	Evaluate the control process for selected financial processes.
Costs and benefits of city promotional and informational materials	Identify the costs and evaluate the extent to which promotional and informational materials achieve their goals; identify potential budget savings from reduced spending and the proponent and opponent positions.
Costs and benefits to assigning 2 officers per police car	Evaluate the costs and benefits of assigning two officers per police car.
Economic development - performance of tax abatements and other economic development approaches	Evaluate compliance and monitoring efforts for economic development efforts.
Infrastructure maintenance - analyze history of street maintenance	Review historical maintenance spending and evaluate if prior spending levels were adequate to maintain the condition of the streets.
Notification and refund process for cancelled recreation classes	Review the process for notifying participants of cancelled classes and refunding the payments to identify cost-effective ways to streamline the process.
Opportunities to reduce costs through technology	The topic is very broad.  An approach to the issue would be to solicit specific proposals from city departments and employees through a survey to identify specific approaches to reducing costs through technology.  Another approach would be to compare with benchmark municipalities or best practices.
Opportunities to use "web 2.0"	Identify best practices and evaluate current efforts.
Outside agency performance - Chamber of Commerce	Review progress toward objectives identified in the agency funding request.
Parking control - costs and revenue	Review costs and revenues; identify best practices.
Pavement repair - pothole repair and costs/benefits of micro-surfacing	Review policies and practices on pothole repair; identify best practices; and evaluate the cost effectiveness of micro-surfacing.
Police - spending on drug enforcement	Identify existing workload measures related to drug enforcement, evaluate the reliability of the information, and report the effort the department puts on drug enforcement.
Police Department performance and oversight	Identify best practices (note that a review of the police administrative bureau is underway).
Recreation brochure - opportunities to reduce costs	Identify the costs associated with preparing and distributing recreation brochures.
Recreation centers and programs fees	Review current fee levels, identify areas were fees could be added, and evaluate existing policy.
Retail sales lost to Topeka and Kansas City	Review data on retail sales and "pull factor."
Review vendor table	Evaluate the city's vendor table for completeness and conduct limited tests, such as addresses matches, to identify potential problems.
Snow removal - performance and best practices	Identify best practices.
Solicit suggestions for improvement from employees who can remain anonymous	Survey city employees to identify specific suggestions for improvements.
Solid waste collection - opportunities to increase efficiency	Review current practices and compare against best practices.
Staff-City Commission interactions	Identify good practices for staff-City Commission interactions and information staff provide to elected officials.
Street light energy use	An audit of street light payments is underway.
Street maintenance - adequate funding level	Review staff calculations of adequate funding requirements.
Sustainability initiatives	Review how sustainability efforts are monitored.
Traffic signals - performance and maintenance	Review how traffic signals are maintained.
Transit - duplication of school district services, opportunities to reduce duplication	Identify duplication of services between school district transportation and the city's transit functions.
Use of consultants	Identify how the city uses consultants and compare the city to best practices.
Utility billing - opportunities to reduce costs through online and/or email billing; and less frequent billing	Assess the feasibility of changing how utility bills are sent and opportunities for savings associated with those changes.
Water fluoridation - costs and benefits	Identify the costs associated with fluoridating water and summarize the proponent and opponent positions related to fluoridation.
Yard waste pickups - costs and benefits of weekly pickup, opportunities to reduce pickups	Identify the costs associated with weekly yard waste pickups and opportunities to reduce costs.

Performance audits in-progress

Two performance audits included in the work plan approved last April are in-progress: street lighting and police administrative bureau.

Street Lighting:  The work focuses on street lights owned by the electric utility and billed to the city.  The work involves reviewing how the bills are calculated; service levels (e.g. the portion of lights that are out, timeliness of repairs, and citizen satisfaction); and pros and cons of municipal ownership of street lights.

Police Administrative Bureau:  The work focuses on the functions provided by the administrative bureau and identifying potential performance audit topics related to those functions.  The administrative bureau provides animal and parking control, information systems, records, evidence, internal affairs, training, and special projects.