Report to Mayor and City Council
Wednesday, June 08, 2016
Consent
SUBJECT:
Title
CONSIDER AWARD OF CONTRACT FOR PROFESSIONAL INDEPENDENT AUDIT SERVICES (CITY COUNCIL)
Body
I. SUMMARY
The City retains a professional independent auditor to perform an annual audit of the City's financial statements and provide other related services as needed.
II. RECOMMENDATION
Recommendation
AWARD a contract to the certified public accounting firm White Nelson Diehl Evans LLP for an amount not to exceed $453,455 for five years of services beginning with the audit of fiscal year ended June 30, 2016.
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III. ALTERNATIVES
TAKE another action deemed appropriate by the City Council.
IV. BACKGROUND
Independent audit services have been provided by Vasquez & Co., LLP for the past six years. The original contract was executed in 2010 for audits of FY09-10, FY10-11, and FY11-12, with the option to extend the engagement two additional years (FY12-13 & FY13-14). On July 30, 2015, the City Council approved another one-year extension for FY14-15.
California Government Code section 12410.6(b) indicates:
"a local agency shall not employ a public accounting firm to provide audit services to a local agency if the lead audit partner or coordinating audit partner having primary responsibility for the audit, or the audit partner responsible for reviewing the audit, has performed audit services for that local agency for six consecutive fiscal years."
Of course the audit firm may propose a different audit partner to comply with this code section. However, periodically changing audit firms offers advantages such as a fresh outlook and greater independence from Management.
On March 15, 2016, the City issued Request for Proposal (RFP) for Professional Audit Services. The RFP was sent directly to 12 independent audit firms with experience auditing government agencies, and posted to the City's website. The City received 8 proposals, including a proposal from Vasquez & Co., LLP. Staff r...
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