being of the Quad City Council services
and Safety Committee I am Chris Rea I'm
the chair with me this evening our
deputy council president
Mariah Vitesse and council member
Victoria hunt we have two items on our
agenda today we have agenda bill 76 93
amending imc title three revenue and
finance to streamline the accounts
payable process and agenda bill 76 96
termination of the interlocal agreement
for public defense monitoring services
so we'll get started and first up is the
gender bill 76 93 and presenting is
renee with cisco hey take it away hello
everyone
I'll try to be concise and answer any
questions hopefully at the end of the
presentation I'm here to present agenda
ville 76 93 which amends the municipal
code language the goal is to streamline
the accounts payable process and shorten
the time for invoice processing this
agenda bill adopts changes to the
Municipal Code Chapter three
to allow the finance department to remit
accounts payable payments to vendors
prior to council approval this has been
allowed under our CW 40 2.24 dot 180
since the mid 90s we do meet the minimum
requirements of the RCW to implement
this practice for example we have
adequate insurance coverage for all of
our employees for faithful performance
of duties as required and we have
effective internal controls over
purchasing and payment of invoices as
noted in the slides based on our
research and past work experience many
cities of similar size have adopted this
practice including Mercer Island Kent
Linwood Woodinville Redmond and Bellevue
King County Library District also has
adopted this practice as well
many years ago continuous accounts
payable processing is the best practice
and applies lean management principles
I've been with the city for a few months
now and I oversee the accounts payable
process and internal controls I've
noticed a sharp increase in invoices the
week before the council meeting as you
can imagine this causes a significant
increase in workflow and forces
processing of invoices in a shorter
window than if we process in a
continuous method so I make this change
in our current system checks are not
mailed until the Tuesday after the
council meeting we are looking at a
minimum of 21 days from the receipt of
the invoice often longer from when an
invoice is received until payment goes
out this at times can't subject the city
to late penalties for example utility
bills and take staff time to call and
try to get late fees removed which isn't
always successful it also doesn't allow
the city to take advantage of any early
payment discounts and rebates which
could be a real savings in addition
allowing payment prior to council
approval will improve customer service
satisfaction for vendors residents and
employees
so how would this affect the Accounts
Payable process after implementation
counsel will still continue to review
the report of payments at regular
meetings and if needed they can send an
email request to the finance director to
ask follow-up questions and if it's
determined that a repayment did need to
happen city staff would pursue a
collection of funds so far there have
been no instances in the last several
years where the council has rejected a
payment any questions on the timing
we as counsel typically meet every two
weeks and so I'm wondering how the 21
days comes about and why why it would
take 21 days on average instead of every
two weeks and then I also I didn't
understand also on the timing about when
you were saying that there seems to be a
increase right before council meetings I
guess I didn't understand why changing
why this change would help with that
timing issue
sure so we're decentralized at the city
actually not all the invoices are
entered by the finance department
they're entered by the other departments
when they because they do receive the
invoices and they enter them into munis
and so they have deadlines which is the
Monday prior to the council meeting or
the actually the Friday prior to the
council meetings where they need to send
up their batches of invoices for payment
so that we can do an additional review
and submit everything for final
processing and issuing the checks so if
they receive it after the deadline to
the finance department they've already
missed the next approval cycle so
they'll you know take an extra two weeks
at that point and there's also you know
with the munis software there's an
electronic approval that needs to happen
and so when people are out on vacation
sometimes they don't approve the
invoices before they leave
they won't be printed because they have
to wait for that actual manager to come
back in and approve them okay so it
would just give you basically more
options of when to process it would
smooth out the workflow greatly and I
think it would really help the
departments as well because a lot of
times they're they they want to add
additional that it's too late for them
and then we sometimes we end up dealing
with vendor vendor calls you know when
am I going to get my payment so we're
just trying to cut out a lot of extra
work involved and then I have two more
so one is that you mentioned that it is
a it is allowed already by was that
saying it was that to say that it's a it
would be allowed in the state code yeah
that's in our our local or municipal
code and so yeah we would need to update
our municipal code to allow us to
process according to the RCW that's been
and then other cities have also done
that and then and then my last question
is as as you know I have in the past
sometimes had questions about items in
terms of what different items in the
accounts payable actually refer to
because the description is not always
very clear to me and so I wondered in
terms of council's role in approving one
thing I I think I understood from this
is that council can can still review and
could there could be if there was an
issue that could be addressed retro
actively and then also would it be
possible to to help with the council
review to get different descriptors or
maybe more descriptors or do you think
that the process of having council just
email questions if something is unclear
is working or do you see options for how
we might improve that I feel that we can
respond to your questions pretty quickly
and I don't see I did look at the
reports and I agree that they're not
they're straight from the accounting
system because that's the best report
that we have that has
the most information on it so that's why
we're providing it that way but I do
think that it's important that if you
have questions about vendors or what
we're paying for that you're able to ask
those questions so I'm available as well
okay so so the system of counsel if we
do have questions asking questions
wouldn't change but it would I guess
give you more flexibility in terms of
addressing those invoice questions
without waiting for the approval at a
given right and we have our new
purchasing card program where we can get
significant rebates based upon the
timing of the payment so you know as
that becomes implemented further we'll
we should see some significant rebates
that we didn't see previously so
president patís thank you for your
presentation
councilmember hunt covered a few of the
questions that I had I just had one
question about is it typical for cities
this is that standard where they're each
department is entering their own ap
their own invoices and it's not
consolidated under accounts payable is
that a typical practice or is that I
don't know if that's typical but based
on the size of the accounts payable
staff in this city that's because of the
way that meanness works that's the only
way to really process effectively so
they're adding they're entering all the
a voice information and then accounts
payable also has the information and is
checking that as it comes through before
payment correct they send up the batches
with all the hard copies behind it and
they're also scanned into the accounting
software and those are reviewed prior to
posting and issuing any checks thank you
can you spend just a minute and talk
about the current review an audit
process that the accounts payable goes
through today for
when a department enters a voucher until
it goes to Council today for final
approval
sure so generally for most apartments
the department manager director will
receive the invoice from from within
their department from their support
services staff and sign off on the
invoice and then it gets entered into
munis the software with a bar code from
there it is also sent out electronically
it's routed through the software and the
manager has to approve it a second time
and they have and since its scanned in
they can pull it right up on their
desktop that's the same manager
approving it again in some cases in
other departments the the Support
Services staff just receives the
invoices and scans them all in and then
they'll get routed for approval after
that process takes place there batched
and sent up to the finance department
hard copies and it's also reviewed for
accuracy at that point dollar amount
vendor approval and then after the the
batches are entered and approved and
ready then they come to my desk and I
review them as well and sign off was
that three reviews at least at a minimum
what are the requirements of the RCW
because you mentioned that we meet the
requirements of the RCW is that would
permit us to go ahead and do this the
insurance for all employees you know
basically covering fraud and abuse it's
pretty typical and then the hiring the
purchasing and dispersing policies that
we have like all the internal controls
over approvals like requiring original
receipts having everything scanned in
and signed off
more than one person reviewing it and
then the the rest of the RCW just deals
with the legislative body must you know
review the list and sign off on the list
at their meeting at their next council
meeting subsequent to the disbursement
so that list is already provided under
the current system this just really
allows us to send the checks out as as
we process I was just looking at IMC
3.16 which is the claims fund and then I
was looking at the ordinance that is
being proposed and it's it's
significantly longer yes the from
looking at the old one it seems fairly
outdated so I'm not sure how long it's
been so there's some some in addition to
changing the process of when we cut
checks there it looks like there's some
other kind of cleanup this going on -
yeah just laying out the RCW and what it
what it states
the other questions for Rene what's
wrong I can't find it right now but I
think that this was also this had legal
review in terms of the way that the
replacement code was written yes the
city attorney reviewed it and gave the
okay it's similar language to a lot of
other cities when I researched their
Municipal Code else thanks Rene any
thoughts or comments
that's remember hunt and I appreciated
the extra explanation about why this
would expedite the process that's used
for processing these payments and I
think it makes sense deputy president
booties I - I I think this makes sense
and I'm just again appreciated the
information about the changes that need
to be made and it sounds like it's gone
through legal review so I would be ok
with this great and I think it's
outstanding that we're looking for ways
to make the city operate more
effectively also so thank you for doing
that Rene okay all those who would like
to send this back to full council for
action say aye
any objection to putting this on consent
no objection public consent January 7
January 7 okay thanks for name thank you
and welcome glad to have you all right
and next we have agenda bills 76 96
termination and the inner local
agreement or public derivative defense
monitoring services and Onam Monahan is
going to be presenting this evening
hello autumn hi so my name is automata
Han I'm the assistant to the city
administrator and I manage all of our
court contracts for a municipal courts
that includes our
defender our prosecutor and a few other
contracts so I'm here tonight to talk
about terminating our interlocal
agreement for our public defense
monitoring services with the city of
snow Kwame and to provide you some
history back in 2013 there was a federal
case called Wilbur versus Mount Vernon
which found that that city wasn't
providing adequate public defense
services the defenders had really high
caseloads and overall we're not
representing their clients in a very
meaningful way so after that ruling a
lot of cities did some self-reflection
and re-evaluated their public defense
systems here in Issaquah like I said our
mayor's office manages all of our court
contracts and we really wanted a third
party to review our public defender
services and be a resource in case we
ever received complaints we're not
experts in public defense services and
we're looking for some expertise in that
area but as we you know looked around
there wasn't much of a profession for
people who would monitor public
defenders and this also was a new
expense for the city back then so we
started a very innovative partnership
with three other cities and applied for
a grant with the state office of public
defense and so in early 2015 we started
an interlocal agreement with Sammamish
north bend and still kwame for all of us
to hire one public defense monitor and
we were very successful in receiving a
grant from OPD for that program and we
hired a monitor who was a Pro Tem judge
and started with us back in 2015 we then
applied for subsequent OPD grants and
receive feedback that they were more
interested in funding new initiatives
instead of ongoing ones and so we
started all four cities started to pay
for this service but soon after several
the cities started to drop out of the
ILA agreement and Snoqualmie continued
on with us until this current time but
we received word that our monitor is
going to be retiring this year and so it
was a good time to look at this ila
agreement with snow Kwame and there's
not much benefit for the same
and continuing this partnership with
snow Kwame we do not share the same
public defense firm so we don't share
the same monitor or defenders very often
like I said our monitors retiring this
is a good time for us to look for
someone just for the city of this aqua
and I'm doing all the administrative
work for both cities and there's that
much benefit for us doing that for it
Snoqualmie as far as doing all the past
to pass through fees and invoicing and
management of the contract so we just
thought this was a good time for us to
move on we have started looking for a
new monitor and this there is now a
growing space of people who are
interested especially Pro Tem judges and
doing this type of work for cities so we
have found some interested folks who are
excited and willing to be our monitors
so we're in that process right now and
I've spoken with some Awami and they
understand that it's time for us to end
this ila and while the program was
successful mostly it was involving grant
funding so I think that's this is just a
housekeeping item really in nature I
checked with our city attorney and he
said that we should get council approval
for this because this I am going until
we say otherwise
so that's why I'm here tonight so I'm
here to answer any questions great
thanks epi president batiste
thanks for the presentation it sounds
like this
makes sense it started with the grant
and and bringing all the cities together
and now everyone has started to split
apart with the partnership that we
currently have is that a big cost
savings or when you when you take into
account the work that you're doing and
the city is doing so can you just speak
to that yes so we're not profiting off
of the inner local agreement with snow
Kwame it's just a pass-through fief so
it's based on caseload and we charge
them just based on caseload how many
offense cases they've had versus is a
clause so we're not so it's more just
that the city is processing all of that
and not really okay yes
the other questions don't remember hunt
and I wondered about Snoqualmie just
because it is an interlocal agreement
and there are multiple parties in it
because it's into your local what if we
had feedback from them about their
thoughts on the severance and there was
any issues or if they were in agreement
that the time had sort of expired on
this they were open to continuing the
interlocal agreement but I was the one
managing the contract so they understood
that it was time for us to move on yes
they did and I also mentioned to to
Snoqualmie that once we find a martyr
will share that person's contact
information if they're interested in
continuing so and also I imagine that
this is as it was before this is a
person this isn't like a full-time no
position but you said that it is
something that now you've you're
confident that you that the city will be
able to find a person so I guess I just
wondered about the continuity of the
service being provided or the monitoring
sure yes so yes there has been some
interest from others and it's definitely
a growing field when we first started
this program I had a whole lot of cities
calling me and saying this is this is
really interesting and this could be a
really good solution for our cities as
well so it's definitely a growing space
and and there are a lot of especially
like I said Pro Tem judges who are
interested in this type of work that
understand how a courtroom works and
it's a small contract for our monitor
it's about ten thousand dollars a year
be president matisse so I'm just trying
to make sure I understand so with
Snoqualmie because the monitor was
retiring there would be a new monitor
that would come on and because they're
two different public defender groups
they would need to monitor this and then
also monitor that okay all right yes
making sure I understand so this would
be a whole lot simpler for Issaquah if
we were to hire our own and they would
only focus on our public defender yeah
thank you so if I look at section 19 of
the ILA
she probably don't have a funny but it's
the one on termination it talks about
120 days of notice did we get 120 days
in order I did oh you're so good
all right so effective it would be then
effective the end of sure it'd be
effective per council action okay so I
was sometime early next year yep what
section nineteen each five of the ILA
age before the signatures I don't have
any other questions about you everything
else yes a general question about the
the services provided you mentioned that
there they might address complaints and
that and there's a number of things
listed so I wondered if you could also
just expand on what you what you've seen
as the value of having this monitor from
from the years that we at the monitor
yeah even though this is housekeeping is
your issue it's really good to educate I
think council members on on this service
so the the contractor looks at a whole
lot of data that our public defender and
our Municipal Court provide as far as
types of cases contact with clients a
whole slew of issues that have come out
of that Wilber case so they look at a
lot of data and then they also pop into
court and watch how a public defender
are working with their clients and then
they interview the judge or a municipal
court staff and others too so they do a
lot of annual spot checks along with
some quarterly checks of data and to
ensure that that their clients are
getting the best service possible from
our defender they report to
they report to me he's open to staying
until we find someone but he was hoping
the end of the year but there's some
flexibility there so we have some time
so we would not find ourselves in a
position of having a void potentially
thankfully no good and and you're
already started the process and
this has nothing to do with Germany Iowa
yeah interesting to know you've already
started the process of looking for the
replacement yes okay Andy the other
questions any thoughts
Ellsberg um I think that it sounds like
in this case that iolite ending is in
the best interest of the city and I'm
glad to hear that the services you know
will continue and there will be
continuity of all of the value that was
provided and so there's no issue there I
guess I also though just in terms of
thinking about how cities might share
the resources if you were to use it if
we if we as a city were to have the same
law firm or if there were other ways to
use this kind of agreement that would
maximize benefit for our city I think it
it was an innovative program it sounds
like and and so it would be it would be
interesting to consider in the future if
there are other opportunities for that
sort of thing but I at this point it
sounds like it makes sense to continue
with the severance of the family so just
you know I think this made a ton of
sense when we entered into this
agreement particularly when it was the
four cities and it was a way to go away
and pursue the grant funding the world
has changed significantly a number of
people have already removed themselves
from this agreement so I think the time
is at that time is right for us to go
our way and and let's know for me
well there's I think I would agree with
those those two comments awesome all
right all in favor of sending this to
full committee on January 7th say aye
i consent okay yes I consent all right I
think that brings us to the close of our
agenda this evening
the next meeting of services and safety
is scheduled for January 8th to
nineteen even though the agenda says
2018 here at 6:30 in Council Chambers
and then I just wanted to say because I
had the microphone I was on TV I just
wanted to wish everybody happy holidays
and a very prosperous and wonderful 2019
and with that were adjourned
you