TO: RULES AND OPEN FROM: Joe Rois,
GOVERNMENT COMMITTEE City Auditor
SUBJECT: Monthly Report of Activities for DATE: September 25, 2025 September 2025
RECOMMENDATION
Approve the Auditor’s Office Monthly Report of Activities for the month of September 2025.
SUMMARY OF RESULTS
Charter Section 8.05(e) requires the City Auditor to submit a monthly report to the City Council of our activities, findings, and recommendations. This report summarizes reports issued, other activities, assignments in process, and the status of the City Auditor’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2025-26 Work Plan during the month of September 2025.
Activities During the Month of September:
1. Issued Status of Open Audit Recommendations as of June 30, 2025. The report is online at:
https://www.sanjoseca.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/124553/. The office also updated the online interactive dashboards of audit recommendations. These can be found at: https://www.sanjoseca.gov/yourgovernment/appointees/city-auditor/audit-recommendations.
2. The Association of Local Government Auditors published “Audit Excellence Through Mentorship: Lessons Learned from Our Team’s Growth” by Gitanjali Mandrekar, Assistant City Auditor.
Information on the status of the City Auditor’s FY 2025-26 Work Plan is attached.
Overall, the Office has completed 4 of the 21 projects on the FY 2025-26 Work Plan1.
On behalf of the Auditor’s Office, I would like to express my appreciation to City staff for their cooperation and assistance during our reviews.
Joe Rois
City Auditor
Attachment
1 As noted in the attachment, the approved work plan includes 20 projects. The two semi-annual recommendation status reports are listed as one project on the work plan but separated here to show progress.
ROGC AGENDA: 10/1/2025
ITEM: B.3
RULES AND OPEN GOVERNMENT COMMITTEE
9-25-25
Monthly Report of Activities for September 2025
Status of the City Auditor’s FY 2025-26 Audit Work Plan As of September 2025
Objective Status Issuance
Date
Assignments Completed
1. City costs for special
events
Assess City-required security or other costs to
organizers for special events. (Request from the
Mayor) Completed
June 2025
(heard by
Council in
August)
2. Access to and use of
critical services by
traditionally marginalized
communities
(traffic safety)
The second project in this series focused on Traffic
Safety programs or services in the Increasing
Community Safety City Council focus area. (see
project 9 above)
Completed August
2025
3. Procurement Assess the efficiency of the City’s procurement processes for goods and services, not including public
works projects. (Outstanding audit requests from a
Councilmember and the Mayor)
Completed August
2025
4. Semi-annual audit
recommendation status
report
The City Auditor’s Office will maintain an online
dashboard of audit recommendations and issue a
report on the implementation status of all open
audit recommendations as of June 30, 2025.
Completed September
2025
Assignments in Process
5. Homelessness
coordination
Audit to explore the City’s internal department
structure related to homelessness response, including
assessing coordination of activities and benchmarking
with other jurisdictions. (Per City Council direction at the June 11, 2024, City Council meeting)
In process
October
2025
(projected)
6. Fire Department inventory
controls over controlled
substances
Assess inventory controls over controlled substances
in the Fire Department. In process
November
2025
(projected)
7. Annual external financial
audit and single audit
(contracted audit service)
The City Charter requires an annual audit of the City’s financial transactions. The independent certified public accounting firm Macias Gini & O’Connell LLP (MGO)
will conduct the annual audits of the Annual
Comprehensive Financial Reports of the City and the
Airport. MGO will also conduct audits of the financial
statements of the Successor Agency to the
Redevelopment Agency, Convention Center, Deferred
Compensation, Tier 3 Defined Contribution Plan,
Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association (VEBA),
Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) grant
compliance, South Bay Water Recycling, San José
Clean Energy (SJCE), wastewater treatment funds,
and the Single Audit (including Airport passenger
facility charges and customer facility charges).
In process
September
2025 –
March
2026
(projected)
RULES AND OPEN GOVERNMENT COMMITTEE
9-25-25
Monthly Report of Activities for September 2025
Objective Status Issuance
Date
8. Semi-annual compliance
reviews of the City’s
investment program
(contracted audit service)
The City’s investment policy requires semi-annual
compliance audits of the City’s investment portfolio.
MGO will conduct the agreed-upon procedures as of
June 30th and December 31st.
In process
October
2025 and
April 2026
(projected)
9. Annual audits of voterapproved bond and parcel
tax measures (contracted
audit service)
MGO will conduct audits of the Branch Library Bond
Projects Fund, the Parks and Recreation Bond
Projects Fund, the Library Parcel Tax Fund, and the
Public Safety and Infrastructure (“Measure T”) Bond
Fund satisfying the City’s obligation for guaranteed
annual audits.
In process
October
2025
(projected)
10. Compliance review of San
José Clean Energy’s risk
management practices
(contracted audit service)
MGO will conduct tests of SJCE investment and risk
management practices to ensure compliance with the
City’s Energy Risk Management Policy and Energy
Risk Management Regulations as of FY Ended June
30, 2025.
In process
November
2025
(projected)
11. Annual Report on City
Services
18th annual report providing data about the cost,
quality, quantity, and timeliness of City services. The report incorporates existing performance
measurement data, showing ten-year historical trends,
a variety of comparisons to other cities, and the results of resident surveys.
In process
December
2025
(projected)
12. Sewer rates Assess the process for setting sewer rates for residential, commercial, and industrial customers.
(per Councilmember request)
In process
January
2026
(projected)
13. Follow up on 2021 Police,
Staffing, Expenditures,
and Workload audit report
This is a follow up to the 2021 Police Staffing,
Expenditures, and Workload2 audit. There are
outstanding audit recommendations over different
aspects of Police operations.
In process
February
2026
(projected)
Assignments Not Yet Started
14. Annual Performance
Review of Team San Jose
and the Convention and
Visitors Bureau
Annual review to determine whether Team San Jose
met their performance metrics as of June 30, 2025. Not
Started
November
2025
(projected)
15. Biennial peer review for
FYs 2023-24 and 2024-25
(contracted audit service)
The City Charter requires a performance audit of the
Office of the City Auditor be conducted at least once
every two years. To fulfill this requirement, the Office participates in the Association of Local Government
Auditors’ peer review program. The last peer review
was conducted in 2023.
Not
Started
November
2025
(projected)
2 See https://www.sanjoseca.gov/home/showpublisheddocument?id=70064
RULES AND OPEN GOVERNMENT COMMITTEE
9-25-25
Monthly Report of Activities for September 2025
Objective Status Issuance
Date
16. Semi-annual audit
recommendation status
report
The City Auditor’s Office will maintain an online
dashboard of audit recommendations and issue a
report on the implementation status of all open audit
recommendations as of December 31, 2025.
Not
Started
March
2026
(projected)
17. Housing loan portfolio Assess the Housing Department’s processes for managing the affordable housing loan portfolio,
including loan servicing and compliance monitoring.
(outstanding audit request)
Not
Started TBD
18. Employee turnover Review turnover across departments and identify potential causes and strategies to mitigate negative
impacts on services, including succession planning.
(per Councilmember request)
Not
Started TBD
19. Office of Economic
Development and Cultural
Affairs performance
measures
Assess the reliability, validity, and usefulness of the Office’s reported or tracked performance measures.
(Councilmembers have made multiple requests for
audits about the City’s performance management in
prior years. This is the second of what is expected to
be an ongoing series of audits related to the City’s
performance measurement and management
systems)
Not
Started TBD
20. Vehicle Abatement A follow up to the 2018 audit of vehicle abatement.
Scope still to be determined but could review customer
service and effectiveness of the vehicle abatement
program for different types of vehicles or requests.
Not
Started TBD
21. Fire technology needs Assess the Fire Department’s technology strategic planning and resources.
Not
Started TBD
Note: The approved work plan includes 20 projects. The two semi-annual recommendation status reports are listed as one project but separated here to show progress.
The City Auditor’s Fiscal Year 2025-26 Work Plan is online at:
https://www.sanjoseca.gov/your-government/appointees/city-auditor/annual-work-plans