City Council Implements Key Financial Changes to Enhance Efficiency and Service Amid Staffing ChallengesNews

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Photo from the Beacon archives  [/caption]

News by Angela Downs

In the August 11, 2025, Council Finance and Budget Committee Meeting, details of efficiency and overall improvements were covered through Audit updates and reviewing changes to policy and code. Jenny Murphy was introduced as the new Finance Manager, having been promoted from her role in the planning department in July.

Audits are an evaluation of congruency with established standards. Examinations search for reliability, accuracy, and compliance. As Deputy Mayor, Amy Howard, reminded, “Audits are a way to highlight where improvements can be had. Not to entrap.”

Objective verification is essential to the process. The design of an audit is to strengthen the establishment under review, supporting risk management, internal controls, and fraud detection.

For example, the city is required to bond employees, such as check signers, the city manager, and financial officers. Employee bonds are insurance policies, fidelity bonds, that protect against potential losses caused by employee theft, embezzlement, or failure to perform duties. The auditing process ensures everyone who is required to be bonded is bonded.

The city faces challenges of keeping up with fast-paced growth, responsible management, inflation, staffing turnover and training. Changes are hard to keep up with, especially during periods without enough staff.

One example of how a staffing shortage can affect a city is in 2023, the City fell 229 days behind on business license approvals. But now, with a bolstered roster of employees, they have finally caught up. They have also succeeded in amending annual reports from 2022 and 2023, and 2024 was on time for this year's audit report.

It’s impossible to predict exactly the financial waves of the future. Cities attempt to get ahead of curves, consult experts like lawyers, economists, analysts, and actuaries. But there is no telling what will happen, especially in times of ecological and national political uncertainty.

While moving through the second Quarterly Financial Report, predictions of low interest rates with a potential uptick in real estate sales gave a positive lift to the higher-than-predicted business taxes, mostly coming from construction on the Hospital and Madrona Ridge, the new housing development off Discovery Road.

The contingency fund covers years like this one, where there are higher claims on unemployment than predicted. Contingency funds are built into budget line items in case something unforeseen happens that requires additional funding. One example given for its use this year was from paying for the academy and the intended police officer does not pass.

The City is responsible for its residents and voters, and some of what comes across their desk directly correlates to the businesses of their residents, and those relationships fall under review during audits.

Within the state-mandated code update, the minimum threshold of earnings in a year before needing to apply for a business license is raised from $2,000 to $4,000. The City cannot go higher than $4,000, but can go lower. Every two years, the State will increase the amount.

“Four thousand is very low. With inflation and how little the dollar grows, I could see that this could be set at $10,000, and it would be two craft fairs, which seems reasonable to have as business,” Council Member Monica MickHager said. ”If you're making $10,000, you're not making a living wage in business.“

With the main objective to serve citizens and public interest, the city has many jobs that require long training, can be hard to fill, or have high turnover. One of the biggest complaints with the city is how slow things can be.

Two major changes are heading for the council’s approval. In an effort to streamline and avoid creating delays in the face of staffing shortages, checks under $50,000 will require one printed signature, while checks over $50,000 will require two written signatures. The second change is for Interfund Loan resolution for transfers between funds within sixty days, to cover the time waiting for reimbursement.

These may seem like small changes, but it's changes like these that keep the city serving its people with the least amount of waste and stress.