Report 2014-122 Recommendations

The board should ensure that management continues to develop and strengthen its controls over the district's financial and administrative functions. For example, district management should fully implement all of the external auditor's remaining recommendations by June 30, 2015. Management should also ensure that its staff follow these policies and should create and implement a plan for monitoring its system of controls. The board should also consider periodically contracting with qualified professionals to conduct a review of the effectiveness of the district's system of internal controls.

The district should strengthen its financial and administrative policies to make it clear that the activities of approving invoices, recording invoices, preparing checks, and reconciling bank statements to the district's records should be performed by separate individuals.

The district should strengthen its financial and administrative policies to make it clear who is responsible for reviewing and approving monthly bank reconciliations.

The district should strengthen its financial and administrative policies to limit California lodging costs to the rate set by the State for its employees, and limit any out-of-state lodging costs to rates set by the federal government for its employees. In addition, the district should remove from its travel policy the reimbursement for exercise equipment use.

The district should strengthen its financial and administrative policies to require periodic reporting of financial information to the board.

The district should strengthen its financial and administrative policies to require a periodic review to ensure that only appropriate personnel are included as authorized signers on financial accounts.

The district should strengthen its financial and administrative policies to establish an appropriate system for tracking and valuing inventory.

The district should strengthen its financial and administrative policies to require employees to obtain their supervisor's approval before working paid overtime.

The district should strengthen its financial and administrative policies to do the following: Require all employees, including managers, to complete timesheets to track time worked and any compensated time off.

The district should strengthen its financial and administrative policies to develop and document a process for reviewing and monitoring designated employees' and board members' filing of Form 700.

The district should strengthen its financial and administrative policies to do the following: Develop and document a policy that requires board members and designated employees to attend ethics training biannually and a process for monitoring attendance.

To clarify the roles and responsibilities of board members, the district should create a more comprehensive board member manual that describes all of the board's roles and fiduciary responsibilities. This manual should address the best practices contained in the California Special Districts Association's Special District Board Member/Trustee Handbook. The district should also provide for additional training for board members in the following areas over which they exercise important responsibilities: financial management, contracting, emergency procurement, and human resources.

The board should reduce the salary ranges for all positions in the district's salary schedules to better align with comparable positions at comparable sanitation agencies. While we are not suggesting that the board cut current salaries of its employees, it is imperative that the board reduce the salary ranges in its salary schedules before more employees reach the top step of their respective salary ranges. The board should also ensure that COLAs are tied to an appropriate cost-of-living index and that any merit raises are based on satisfactory performance that is documented in an appraisal. Further, the board should either justify its need for longevity pay to attract and retain qualified employees or discontinue its practice of offering longevity pay to those employees who are not already receiving this extra pay. In addition, the district should revise its employee retirement contribution policy to require all employees to contribute an appropriate amount to their pensions and should discontinue its practice of reimbursing its represented employees up to $300 annually for gym memberships. The board should make these changes for unrepresented employees immediately and should seek to make these changes for represented employees by negotiating with the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Local 2167 when the current MOU expires in July 2015.

To ensure that employee compensation remains appropriate after making the changes described in the previous recommendation, the board should develop robust policies that outline how it will establish future compensation for all district positions. This policy should require the district to conduct a salary survey of comparable sanitation agencies to determine what compensation levels are appropriate for the job duties of district positions and to present the results to the board.

To ensure that it follows state law and its policies for emergency procurement, the board should review and reapprove all emergencies at each board meeting subsequent to the initial emergency declaration and should terminate emergency declarations as soon as possible to ensure that it competitively bids any work that is no longer an emergency.

The district should ensure that it hires qualified vendors at a reasonable price by using a competitive process when contracting for professional services. When this is not possible or appropriate given the nature of the services, the district should adequately justify its use of a noncompetitive process (sole-source procurement). In addition, the district should obtain a written description of services to be provided (scope of services) and a cost estimate from legal counsel before engaging in litigation.

The district should ensure that it has access to qualified human resources professionals, whether contracted or in-house, to assist staff when handling human resources issues.

The district should implement the remaining recommendations contained in its human resources consultants' work plan by the targeted dates shown in Table 3 on page 18 of our report, and improve its performance management system to ensure that staff receive required annual performance evaluations.

The district should implement the remaining recommendations contained in its human resources consultants' work plan by the targeted dates shown in Table 3 on page 18 of our report, and develop and document a policy that requires board members and supervisors to attend harassment prevention training biannually and a process for monitoring their attendance.

To ensure that compensation for the general manager remains reasonable, and to prevent the excesses that existed in the former general manager's contract, the district should develop a policy that establishes the criteria to be used when periodically evaluating the general manager's performance and for determining any merit-based compensation increases.