Finance & Human Resources Department

The Medina Finance and Human Resources Department provides mandatory services (those required by statute, policy, or ordinance) and essential services (those required for effective and efficient City operations)

Mandatory Services:

  • Treasury
    • Ensure fiscal integrity & efficient use of revenue
    • Maintain City’s excellent credit rating
    • Long-term financial planning
  • Budgeting
    • Generate a balanced budget on first draft
    • Provide Council with alternative balancing scenarios
    • Create calendar for public engagement which includes 2-3 Public Hearings (only 1 required)
    • Meet all State mandated deadlines
    • Run Council budget study session(s)
    • Present at public meetings
  • Financial Reporting
    • Monthly financial statements
    • Monthly check registers
    • Monthly detail-level financial reporting to Finance Committee
    • Quarterly cash position report
    • Q3 & Q4 Fund comparison & year-end projection report
    • Annual report filing with State (requires approx. 40 hours)
  • Auditing
    • External audits performed by State Auditor’s Office continues to achieve unqualified audit opinion with no material weaknesses or significant deficiencies (requires approx. 80 hours of prep, 2 weeks of on-site review & approx. 20 hours of remote follow up).  Fee = 4% of dept. budget.
    •  Washington Cities Insurance Authority annual survey and audit
    • Example of other external audits was recent Department of Retirement Services leasehold audit
    • Internal Auditing: reconciling accounts, reviewing revenue & expense lines for variances, etc. 

Essential Services:

  • Insurance/Risk Management (41% of annual department budget)
    • WCIA delegate
    • File claims
    • Maintain property schedules & determine deductibles
  • Human Resources
    • Arrange all Staff trainings such as recent anti-harassment
    • Wellness program coordinator (qualifies City for 2% discount on health insurance)
    • Serve on CBA negotiation team; analyze financial impact of proposals
    • Recruitment assistance; coordinate on-boarding process with payroll (19 in 2022)
    • Coordinate with payroll for terminating employees (16 in last 12 months)
    • Open enrollment period for benefits
  • Payroll
    • Monthly payroll cycle (approx. 16-20 staff hours each)
    • 2 “special” payrolls (approx. 4 staff hours each)
    • Monthly mid-month draw payments (approx. 1 staff hour each)
    • Quarterly reporting: L&I, ESD, WA Treasurer, IRS
    • Annual W2/W3
    • NOTE: While our staffing total is small: 25.7 FTE, 12-14 seasonal & 1 LEOFF1 retirees receiving benefits; it is extremely complex for payroll processing. 
  • We have 18 positions represented in 3 separate union bargaining units (2 hrly/non-exempt & 16 salary/non-exempt) and 19-22 unrepresented employees (6 exempt, 1 salary/non-exempt & 11-13 hrly/non-exempt).
  • We have 3 different requirements on how overtime is calculated depending on employee classification.  Additionally, the PD has 6 levels of overtime.  Our payroll software doesn’t have the ability to recognize even standard overtime.
  • In setting up a new employee or processing a timesheet there are potentially 30 different types of compensation of which 10 have 72 associated functional sub-categories.  Over the course of the year, over 20,000 lines of financial reporting are created for payroll.
  • Accounts Payable
    • 1000 + payments issued annually comprised of over 20,000 coded expense lines, 250 + active vendors
    • 13-month payables cycle; approx. 26 batches, each taking approx. 20-24 staff hours
    • Annual 1099/1096
  • Other reporting
    • WA DOT Financial/Street report
    • AWC Salary survey
    • Parks levy
    • Public records & internal information research requests
    • Intergovernmental comparable & courtesy exchange
    • AWC grant
    • WA Treasurer
    • DOR Leasehold Excise return

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Staffing (46% of budget):

Finance & HR Director, Full-time
Assistant Finance Director, Half-time

”Why do we need two people in finance?”

  1. Best-practice, internal accounting controls requires division of duties to reduce the risk of losses.  For example, the person who enters the payable invoice & prints the checks should not have the authorization to sign them or release electronic payments.  The person who takes in payments should not be the same person who balances the account statements.
  2. The last time the City operated with a one-person finance department it received a strong recommendation from the State Auditor to create a second position to be able to put some better controls into place.
  3. Further back in the City’s history there was an incident of embezzlement when there was one person in charge of Finance.  She also set a fire to cover her tracks, causing significant damage to City Hall.
  4. A second pair of eyes will more likely catch errors, leading to greater accuracy of reporting.
  5. Employee burnout---two people allow sufficient coverage for leave to be taken.

 Other department budget expenses:

  • Account & banking fees, 3%
  • Accounting software support & HR updates, 5%
  • Voter registration & election fees to King County, 2%

 

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