Council debates Baker Tilly accounting retainer; contractor asked to return with copies

Baker Tilly outlined a one-year contract proposal for accounting support at Kingsford Heights, offering 95 hours annually at $2,100 per month to cover the annual financial report, budget work, capital‑asset reporting and limited on-site assistance.

The firm's representative said the fixed fee is designed to staff the required tasks across the year and reduce surprise invoices, and noted recent assistance cleaning up prior accounting issues. "It's just covering the AFR and the budget services... those are together, that's 60 hours of work usually for us," the representative said.

Council members expressed concern about bank reconciliations lagging into late summer and said they needed full contract copies and more detail before committing to a new year-long retainer. An initial motion lacked a second and died; members later made a motion to table the contract and requested a full copy of the agreement to be distributed well before the next meeting. The council set the item for review at the first January meeting and asked for a six‑month option if preferred.

No vote to adopt the contract was taken; the matter was deferred so councilors could review the text and reconcile outstanding accounting questions before deciding whether to accept the firm on a fixed-fee basis.