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HomeMy WebLinkAbout04112022 City Council Special Meeting Minutes City of Seward,Alaska City Council Special Meeting Minutes April 11, 2022 Volume 42,Page 1 CALL TO ORDER The April 11,2022 special meeting of the Seward City Council was called to order at 5:00 p.m. by Mayor Christy Terry. OPENING CEREMONY Assistant City Manager Stephen Sowell led the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag. ROLL CALL There were present: Christy Terry presiding and Sue McClure John Osenga Liz DeMoss Ristine Casagranda Mike Calhoon Randy Wells comprising a quorum of the Council; and Janette Bower, City Manager(telephonically) Brenda Ballou, City Clerk Kris Peck, Deputy City Clerk Brooks Chandler, City Attorney Excused—None Absent—None CITIZEN COMMENTS ON ANY SUBJECT EXCEPT THOSE ITEMS SCHEDULED FOR PUBLIC HEARING—None APPROVAL OF AGENDA AND CONSENT AGENDA Motion (McClure/Casagranda) Approval of Agenda and Consent Agenda Motion Passed Unanimous The clerk read the following approved consent agenda items: There were no consent agenda items. NEW BUSINESS Other New Business Items Committee of the Whole: Greene Forensic Audit City of Seward,Alaska City Council Special Meeting Minutes April 11, 2022 Volume 42,Page 2 Terry outlined the setup of the Committee of the Whole with the Greene Audit presentation coming first, followed by council questions and comments and then the public questions and comments. Terry felt there would be ample time for everyone to participate. Motion (Terry/McClure) Move into Committee of the Whole regarding Greene Forensic Audit. Motion Passed Unanimous Council went into Committee of the Whole at 5:04 p.m. Council came out of Committee of the Whole at 6:30 p.m. Terry reported that administration would follow up with Greene Accounting's recommendations and provide ongoing reports and updates. Administration would provide reports to council for the internal audit currently being conducted in finance. CITIZEN COMMENTS Suzi Towsley appreciated the open-door policy and response from administration. It has made a huge difference in the atmosphere in city hall and city council. Towsley had often heard that Seward was very sophisticated, but she wanted to emphasis that we were not a rare gem in the universe and standard rules still applied here. She thanked council for their work. Sharyl Seese was thrilled to finally see the forensic audit happening. She thanked everyone for the work that had been done. COUNCIL AND ADMINISTRATION COMMENTS & RESPONSE TO CITIZEN COMMENTS Bower agreed that city was complicated and one of the goals was to de-mystify the utilities so residents could better understand the billing process. Calhoon thanked everyone for their comments. One of his goals was for the community to regain their trust in the city government.Citizens needed to get involved and help make changes.He felt we were moving in a good direction for a town of our size. Casagranda wanted to echo everything Calhoon said. DeMoss wanted to thank the forensic auditors for their time.She felt it was important to find out why the errors happened in the first place instead of sweeping them under the rug.Otherwise it would only happen again.DeMoss expressed concern about the missing report which was supposed to be included for the auditors to complete their job. Osenga thanked the presenters and administration and wanted to move forward. City of Seward,Alaska City Council Special Meeting Minutes April 11, 2022 Volume 42, Page 3 McClure was also disappointed to not have the complete report and wondered what gg happened to the missing time frame of information. Lr Terry thanked Greene Auditors for coming to Seward and thanked city employees for gathering data behind the scenes. Clerk's Note:During the Committee of the Whole, the forensic auditors stated they had not received the user logs that recorded employee activity from the city's.financial system vendor for the period of April 2016 to March 2019. ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at 6:40 p.m. 0,FT Kris Peck risty Terry I Deputy City Clerk Mayor (City Seal) '�.YtIY.D Y iC 4;4.7 C"i4t SEA/ SEAL • Alf A W QFr0.