Tuesday, June 11, 2024

The council's only itemized spending approval on June 11, 2024 was a $1,076 purchase order to Staples Advantage for Parks & Recreation office supplies, passed 5-0 as part of the consent agenda alongside warrant approvals and three sets of prior meeting minutes; no split payments, repeat vendors, or threshold-adjacent amounts were present among the structured spending items. The council voted 5-0 to authorize travel to the 92nd U.S. Conference of Mayors (June 20–23, 2024), though a separate attendance poll showed only Mayor Sharif intended to go, with all four council members voting against attending (1-4 on attendance). No new spending was approved under unfinished business; the council voted 4-0 (Bowers absent) to receive and file the FY 2020-2021 audited financial statements — an informational action, not a spending decision — following a presentation by EDN Payne auditor Eden Castreno, who disclosed two material weaknesses, six significant deficiencies, a qualified opinion on cash allocation tied to an unreconciled $80 million journal entry posted in 2011 with no backup documentation, and stated the audit took one year and ten months to complete. The city manager presented the proposed FY 2024-25 budget of approximately $254 million at a public hearing adjourned 5-0 without an adoption vote; eleven residents spoke during general public comment on topics including potholes, encampments, audit irregularities, and a $69 million prior-year accounting adjustment the city controller attributed to accumulated errors.