Amador County – Sutter Creek may not bring back City Auditor Ralph Murcello next year, but it won’t necessarily be because of a tough report he made last week on his annual audit for the fiscal year ending in 2009. Finance Committee member and Councilwoman Linda Rianda said Friday she liked Murcello’s report, as did the other city council members last Tuesday. She said no one on the council “wants to do things improperly.” Much of what the auditor brought up were old issues, but Rianda said she wanted to “make sure those concerns will not be concerns in the future.” She said “financial concerns that came up a number of months ago were acknowledged by the council, were addressed and are being addressed.” She said she made a spread sheet, identified each issue, and looked for what to do to make sure it was not an issue again for the city. Rianda said the city likely would not use Murcello next year, but it was at the auditor’s own suggestion. He told the council that typically, an “entity does not like to use the same auditor for more than 2 or 3 years,” while he has been auditing Sutter Creek for 5 years. Rianda said: “He’s been really helpful on giving us recommendations on some things we can do to improve,” and he has “offered to help the city” and sent the city “copies of what other cities have done.” Murcello in a report with his annual audit last week told the council some practices in other cities to fight financial hard times. He said some cities are making all employees “at will,” (as is also done in other states) and also creating “a new tier for employees hired after July 1st.” Other options are contracting employees and no longer giving paid vacations, as done by the city of Vallejo, which has been in bankruptcy for 2 years. Murcello said cities establish a reserve for economic hard times, such as Carmel, which socks away a portion of its Transient Occupancy Tax. He said cities also have been doing away with the “luxury” of the office manager position. Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. -
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Amador County – Sutter Creek may not bring back City Auditor Ralph Murcello next year, but it won’t necessarily be because of a tough report he made last week on his annual audit for the fiscal year ending in 2009. Finance Committee member and Councilwoman Linda Rianda said Friday she liked Murcello’s report, as did the other city council members last Tuesday. She said no one on the council “wants to do things improperly.” Much of what the auditor brought up were old issues, but Rianda said she wanted to “make sure those concerns will not be concerns in the future.” She said “financial concerns that came up a number of months ago were acknowledged by the council, were addressed and are being addressed.” She said she made a spread sheet, identified each issue, and looked for what to do to make sure it was not an issue again for the city. Rianda said the city likely would not use Murcello next year, but it was at the auditor’s own suggestion. He told the council that typically, an “entity does not like to use the same auditor for more than 2 or 3 years,” while he has been auditing Sutter Creek for 5 years. Rianda said: “He’s been really helpful on giving us recommendations on some things we can do to improve,” and he has “offered to help the city” and sent the city “copies of what other cities have done.” Murcello in a report with his annual audit last week told the council some practices in other cities to fight financial hard times. He said some cities are making all employees “at will,” (as is also done in other states) and also creating “a new tier for employees hired after July 1st.” Other options are contracting employees and no longer giving paid vacations, as done by the city of Vallejo, which has been in bankruptcy for 2 years. Murcello said cities establish a reserve for economic hard times, such as Carmel, which socks away a portion of its Transient Occupancy Tax. He said cities also have been doing away with the “luxury” of the office manager position. Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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