Financials and FOIA start with the same letter and went hand-in-hand during Parks’ workshop on Oct. 8. Chair Bill Featherstone asked if commissioners had read FOIA state guidelines and said they needed to be versed in FOIA to help Parks operate within the “spirit” of FOIA.
Commissioners went over ways they could be more transparent and Featherstone raised concern that FOIA was eating up employees’ time. Commissioners began to discuss Slack, a Cloud-based discussion board that commissioners use to communicate. They tossed around the idea of making their Slack public so that a person would be able to view commissioners’ conversations. They also brought up the idea of a public discussion board, but that was shot down. Super agreed to look into ways for Parks to better communicate while upholding FOIA.
Featherstone brought forward the concern from commissioners that the finance reports were cryptic and said that they need to be that anyone can read and understand them.
Commissioner Steven Foster said that the issue was a different accounting system. Their old system was device-based where they would buy a single package with all parts of the accounting software included. Parks moved to a Cloud-based system that is cut up into monthly subscriptions, and a part that was missing was reporting functions.
Linda McBride, a citizen at the meeting, raised concerns that Parks was not following code on financial reporting according to City Code 12.04.04. A second citizen in attendance, Pat Costner, voiced that the reason for the many FOIA requests was due to “indigestible reporting” of Parks’ finances.
McBride gave a list of issues she had that was driving her FOIA requests. Commissioner Scott Bardin said that he was concerned about Parks finances and would devote time to them.
Commissioners voiced their want for an internal audit with Featherstone saying that they had reserved funds to hire an accounting firm. Bardin agreed to look up firms for prices and commissioner Dave Hartmann put it on the agenda for their next meeting.