Interim finance director reports FY27 budget kickoff, audit on track and fleet software rollout

Andrea Phillips, serving as interim finance director and deputy city manager, updated the Finance Committee at its Jan. 26 meeting on several administrative items.

Phillips said the city has kicked off the FY27 budget-development process, conducting two days of training with departments and providing budget templates and guidance. She said the city recently completed a strategic-planning exercise to identify budget priorities and four-year strategic goals that will be fed back to departments.

On audits, Phillips reported the city submitted the financial-statement portion of its audit by the deadline and is on track to complete the single-audit of federal funds. She also announced the city is rolling out RTA fleet-management software and has scheduled staff training next week to modernize fleet and asset management.

Phillips said the finance director job is being advertised and encouraged people with municipal finance experience to apply. She also noted the audit committee had met and reselected Diane Rubin as chair and that the committee is seeking a fifth member who must be a CPA, as required by code.

Phillips began her update by noting a personnel change, saying, "You probably noticed that I'm not Emily Oster. I'm serving currently as the interim finance director along with the DCM role." She closed by inviting committee members and the public to refer qualified candidates to the city's website.