From: Jacob Patterson
To: City Clerk
Subject: Public Comment -- 8/14/23 CC mtg. Item No. 5F
Date: Friday, August 11, 2023 3:53:31 PM
City Council,
I am troubled by this consent calendar item. In the past, our Finance Department staff prepared our cost allocation plans in-house with the same or fewer staff members. I didn't even identify a lot of significant concerns about the allocation plans we have developed and Isaac was involved with those plans too. Does no one have the capacity to evaluate and develop a new or revised cost allocation plan? If so, does the current department staffing meet the City's needs? With my pre-legal finance background, I could prepare a cost allocation plan and it is not particularly difficult to do so. Anyone with basic financial skills and who knows how to use Excel could craft a cost-allocation plan and it doesn't require a lot of specialized knowledge even though there are legal issues involved too.
I don't understand how a City administration that has more employees than we have ever had can't perform basic job functions that we have traditionally performed in-house without incurring these considerable outside consulting expenses. That said, I don't mind issuing an RFP because it doesn't mean we have to hire any outside consultants to do this but I think we should have the capability and capacity to develop this in-house. I actually think that capacity is already there, although some staff might not be able to take so many days off or they might need to go back to five full work days per week.
There is something wrong at City Hall if we have to contract out so much of the substantive work rather than having the people we are already paying a salary to perform the work as part of their job responsibilities.
Also, why is this on the consent calendar and why hasn't this been brought to the Finance & Admin Committee to review first? Why are so many committee and commission meetings being cancelled when there are clearly items of business they could be reviewing so the public has a meaningful opportunity to chime in rather than being blind-sided by last minute consent calendar items with no public explanation why they are even being proposed. Also, why are our City Council agendas being published on Fridays rather than the prior practice of Wednesday afternoon or Thursday morning? These delays and last-minute postings really make it harder for you but also the public to have time to review and think about the agenda items.
Regards,
--Jacob