Council hears staff ask for stronger financial controls and a new finance director as part of budget fix

Brad Chambers emphasized the need for stronger financial controls alongside any budget or tax-rate decisions, saying that the proposed budget was built using the best available information while staff corrected miscoding and oversight problems.

"We need to establish reliable financial reporting, stronger controls, accurate forecasting, and sound practices," Chambers said. Several council members urged hands-on workshops with management, financial advisers and the incoming finance controller to re-code funds, identify internal savings, and develop a multi-year plan before final adoption of tax-rate changes. The council directed staff to prepare reconciliations of reimbursements and miscodings and to return with specific recommendations and timelines for the new finance director to execute.