CSMFO Magazine July 2018 | Summer Edition

CSMFO C A L I F O R N I A

S O C I E T Y

O F

M U N I C I P A L

F I N A N C E

O F F I C E R S

M A G A Z I N E JULY | 2018 | ISSUE 21 | SUMMER EDITION

Smart City Initiatives Page 14

Guardians of the Finance Galaxy

CSMFO Travels the Globe Page 48

Page 32

AND MORE!

CSMFO

CALIFORNIA SOCIETY OF MUNICIPAL FINANCE OFFICERS

M A G A Z I N E

JULY | 2018 | ISSUE 21 | SUMMER EDITION

2018-19 Board of Directors President Margaret Moggia, West Basin MWD President-Elect Joan Michaels Aguilar, City of Dixon Past President Drew Corbett, City of San Mateo Scott Catlett, City of Yorba Linda Carrie Corder, Cucamongo Valley Water District Karan Reid, City of Concord Steve Heide, Chino Valley Fire District Richard Lee, City of South San Francisco Jennifer Wakeman, City of Lafayette Executive Director Melissa Dixon, MBA, CAE Editorial Designer Dayna Dixon Photographer David Blue Garrison Editors Marcus Pimentel, City of Santa Cruz David Cain, Retired Wing-See Fox, Urban Futures Inc. Jessie Soto, City of Santa Cruz Communication Committee Chair- Marcus Pimentel, City of Santa Cruz Vice Chair- Pamela Arends-King, South Coast Water District Vice Chair- Ernie Reyna, City of Eastvale Janna Bogue, City of Thousand Oaks David Cain, Retired Karla Campos, City of La Quinta Wing-See Fox, Urban Futures Inc. Steve Heide, Chino Valley Fire District Nitish Sharma, City of West Sacramento James Russel-Field, City of Thousand Oaks Additional Photography Pexels, Pixabay, Stocksnap, and Unsplash Thank you to all the authors in this issue for sharing with us their time and expertise. If you have an idea for a future article, please contact Melissa Dixon at the CSMFO office at melissa.dixon@staff.csmfo.org.

For more information on CSMFO or this Magazine, please contact the CSMFO office at 916.231.2137 or visit the website at www.csmfo.org.

The views and opinions expressed in these articles are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of CSMFO.

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CONTENTS JULY | 2018 | ISSUE 21 | SUMMER EDITION

FEATURES

Smart City Initiatives P.

14

West Sacramento’s Homelessness Initiative P.

My Reflections of My Service as a GASB Member P.

P.

18

P.

39

P.

28

P.

30

P.

June Election Results Mirror Recent Local Tax History

42

P.

23

Better Collaboration Makes For Happy Auditors

South Dakota v.

Wayfair, Inc Part II

How Bargaining Units Rallieed Behind 457 Plan Consolidation P.

Funding Sources for Water nd Wastewater Projects

21

P.

South Dakota v.

Wayfair, Inc.

26

Sponsored Article: Where is the “Pot” of Gold?

Your Agency’s Budget has been Adopted, so now what?

36

Strategic Business Planning Updated P.

44

46

INSIDE CSMFO President Margaret Moggia’s Letter P.

6

Guardians of the Finance Galaxy P.

32

Executive Director’s Letter P.

President Elect’s Letter

8

P.

10

CSMFO Shines A Spotlight On... Scott Catlett P.

12

Taking Advantage of Special CSMFO Chapter Funding P.

20

CSMFO Travels the Globe P.

48

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CSMFO MAGAZINE JULY 2018

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CSMFO MAGAZINE JULY 2018

PRESIDENT’S LETTER Margaret Moggia

Happy New Fiscal Year! …. Well, for most of us. As we approach any new fiscal year, do you find yourself wondering if you got the dates right? I mean we still have year-end close for fiscal year 17-18, and yet we are planning and transacting for the new fiscal year 18-19, and for some of us, we are actually thinking ahead 2-5 years, sometimes longer, to see how we can address the finances in the future. For me as I sure it is for you, it is making sure I have enough knowledge to forecast the future so I can make the right decisions today. I found that with my staff we have been able to really ask the tough questions and run analysis, but also important to me is the access to the tools and input from our vendors. Each of these touchpoints helps my agency get closer to the answer we have been searching for.

this material. That’s pretty cool.

In May, the CSMFO Board met in person to conduct its monthly meeting. Well, most of them did – my flight was cancelled. How funny to lead your meeting when you are miles away from the rest of the group! Thank you Drew and Grace for your hospitality, and Scott for allowing Laura and I to use your space. While I may not physically there, we had some great discussion. Here are a few highlights:

In addition to finding answers, is creating efficiencies – asking what process improvements can be made - and what better way than to cross train staff and hire an intern. Both these experiences provide my staff and me the opportunity to see if we can get to the same result, increase our knowledge, and appreciate the work of each member of our team. I have also found that when you can communicate clearly on a topic then you know you have mastered it. There are times that I find myself speaking and then stop and say – wow, I know

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• Contract review – CSMFO contracts with consultants to provide assistance either through webinars or information sharing. With a contract renewal around the corner, this provided the opportunity to review the scope of work and ensure that we continue to provide these valuable resources to our members.

• New core training – Career Development Committee have been developing a curriculum outline for a new core course. The concept includes a two-day program consisting of four modules that a participant can select any or all of them to increase their knowledge over budget including the foundations of budget management; building a budget; budget document and reporting; and advanced budget concepts. The next planned activity is to seek proposals for a consultant to prepare the course material.

• Awards Program – The Recognition committee continues to review and refine the effectiveness of all of its programs that allow agencies to be recognized for its efforts in financial reporting and budget. One new area of exploration is to develop a new recognition for financial reporting transparency. While still under development, this will be a great way to acknowledge public agencies who display financial information on its website for the public to view.

and then add the more California-focused concepts of revenues, pensions, and governance. Several other states have state certification programs and the working group is benchmarking its input to see how to best develop this significant effort. In addition, the Board approved the working group to conduct a survey of membership to receive input on how this program should be developed. We value your input – please participate when the survey is conducted later this year.

• Chapter Banners – Coming soon to a chapter near you, CSMFO will be continue to brand itself when we meet and this includes banners at each chapter to provide enhanced visibility to participants.

• Focus Group – At the 2018 Annual Conference in Riverside, a small group of individuals met with a consultant to ask questions about where CSMFO is successful and what the opportunities for improvement are. These inputs are invaluable to the CSFMO leadership and will continue to shape our discussion. Thank you to all the focus group participants for openly sharing their views. The leadership recognizes it is important to reflect on the comments from the membership and ensure that the leadership stays in touch with the membership needs.

There is a plan to have another focus group at the 2019 annual conference.

• CSMFO APP – Lead by Board Director Richard Lee, his working group explored the development of a smart phone application with plans to allow for event registration, access to member directory, and link to informational videos. The Board has approved moving forward with the project and will be issuing a request for proposal in the near future. The intended goal is to launch the new application next year.

One final note, there has been a couple of opportunities where CSMFO has met with college students. What a great way to connect with students and share with them about working for local governments. And while we are searching for the next generation employee, they are searching for internships. So,

• Certification Program Development – Lead by Board Director Scott Catlett, his working group met to discuss various concepts and the desire to pursue the development of our own certification program. Similar to the GFOA’s Certified Public Finance Officer, the concept is to develop a certification that does included the key learning objectives of government finance,

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CSMFO MAGAZINE JULY 2018

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S LETTER Melissa Dixon

Ode to Joy Summer can be a great time for family, friends and laughter in the sun, on vacations, around barbecues, watching fireworks, and, if you can fit it in, at a pool, beach, or lake party.

As such, our typical July magazine has no official theme or focus, and tries to be a bit lighter, inject a bit more fun, and stay open to publish any timely or interesting topic. So, this month we embraced that spirit and covered topics about the travels of CSMFO board and committee members; we highlight a CSMFO member and chapter; we proudly introduce you to our Palm Springs conference speakers; and we covered timely topics such as the June election and Supreme Court decision to allow for more on-line sales tax.

However, like life, summer can’t just be all fun and games. We still have to stay real and ready for what’s next, so this edition also touches on topics like homelessness, smart city initiatives, life after budgets, how to collaborate better with auditors, and insights from within GASB.

All that changed this summer. Without going into details (because tacky), I feel like a weight has been lifted. I’m smiling more, enjoying my children more, appreciating life more. I was at a 4th of July party (same one I go to every year), but this year I actually went in the pool. I splashed and threw water balloons at my kids; played fetch from the pool with the dog.

I was able, for the first time in years, to truly let go and enjoy myself, not having to be en pointe and on edge.

I’d been struggling with what to write for this month’s message.

Summer is always a bit of a slow time for CSMFO, and I was feeling uninspired. But then I thought of everything happening in my life right now and how great I feel, and I figured the summer issue was the perfect time to share.

Maybe you’re at the same point in your life that I am now— happy and relaxed and carefree. If that’s you…isn’t this wonderful? This imminently bearable lightness of being, it must be what life’s all about. If that’s not you—if you’re experiencing And while I hope that you’re in a position in your life where you something akin to what I did the last few years—hang in there. can enjoy and embrace summer and all the joy it can bring, for You too can get out of that funk. It may require some difficult decisions, but no situation ever improves without first the status me…recent summers have been all too real and hasn’t meant that for a while. I wrote to you in 2014 of my summer vacation quo being disrupted. Be brave and be bold and be true to yourself. And if you’re not ready for that yet? I get it. I’ve been to Hawaii with my family; that was the last time I really felt there. To those of you I say, focus on the things you’re grateful carefree. The summers of 2015, 2016 and 2017 were tense for, and embrace joy where you find it. and somewhat difficult. Not that I let on that anything was amiss—I’m sure even those of you I consider friends wouldn’t I hope this summer brings you good friends, good food, and have known anything was wrong. I try very hard to stay on many happy pool parties. the positive side of life, and find joy in the everyday. But it was harder the last three years than it should have been.

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CSMFO MAGAZINE JULY 2018

PRESIDENT ELECT’S LETTER Joan Michaels Aguilar

On the Road to Palm Springs (with a stop in St. Louis) Happy new fiscal year for those agencies out there with a July 1st fiscal year start. I hope that the annual budget process went smoothly as you finalized your fiscal year 18-19 or 18-20 year budget(s) with your governing body. Working on the budget makes me appreciate the collaborative effort involved between department heads, mid-managers, the input received from the public, and the elected officials. Ultimately, all coming together after months of hard work with a budget document ready for publication on a city’s website to be reviewed and adopted as a planning tool for the coming fiscal year(s).

The same can be said for many processes within CSMFO, including annual conference planning. This collaborative effort involves many CSMFO members, municipal and commercial alike, as well as our Executive Director Melissa Dixon and her entire SMA team, Teri Anticevich and Janet Salvetti and the rest of their M&AMS team, and includes input from a myriad of consultants. Together, after months of research and analysis, we launch a plan (yes Rocket- we have a plan). And although after dealing with the many twists that arrive we can feel like we’re back to a 12% plan, ultimately it always comes together. As Henry Ford said, “Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.”

Speaking of educational content, on our most recent Host Committee call, Harriet Commons shared with us that the Program Committee has received 123 submissions for conference sessions for 2019 in Palm Springs. That is a remarkable number. The program committee led by veteran, Ronnie Campbell (CSMFO Past President 2010) now has the unrivaled task to comb through these items and develop the great educational content. To assist with this process, the committee utilizes Track Captains and Co-Captains, supplemented by key volunteers, for different subject matter areas. I’d like to take a moment to call attention to our special Guardians who work behind the scenes to bring us so much content: Accounting/Financial Reporting

Track Captain - Harriet Commons

Co-Track Captain - Dennis Kauffman

Budget/Financial Planning

Track Captain - Mary Bradley

Co-Track Captain - Scott Catlett

Financial Management

I recently attended the GFOA conference in St. Louis, my second time ever attending a GFOA conference.

Dare I say the first time was over 15 years ago that I first attended in Denver, Colorado. I did hear some ideas from our President Margaret Moggia that we talked about whilst attending a St. Louis Cardinals game with some of our colleagues that I think we could implement related to our first time attendees. While we don’t have the same conference schedule to be able to host a First-Time Attendees lunch, there may be other ways to repeat last year’s successful first-time attendee event at the Palm Springs conference.

And while I’m looking forward to the Palm Springs destination, with all the surrounding conference, hotel, food, recreational, and shopping opportunities, it is the entire CSMFO conference experience that makes it an incredible value, full of so much educational and inspirational content.

Track Captain - Scott Catlett

Co-Track Captain - Mary Bradley

Utility Financial Management

Track Captain - Laura Nomura

Co-Track Captain - Jimmy Forbis

Innovation & IT

Track Captain - Mary Bradley

Co-Track Captain - Ronnie Campbell

Leadership and Management

Track Captain - Viki Copeland

Co-Track Captain - Margaret Moggia

Treasury and Debt Management

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Track Captain - Margaret Moggia

Co-Track Captain - Dennis Kauffman

I know I will be looking forward to the sessions that will be available in Palm Springs, and I’m excited about our keynote speakers (more on this elsewhere in this magazine!)

With a January conference so much earlier than normal, Melissa Dixon, Janet Salvetti and I met recently to discuss logistics surrounding conference registration deadlines and budget items. To help support the preparation and this change, we will bring the conference budget to the CSMFO Board for approval in August. One the many items to check off includes our still active consideration on what type of conference program will we have; a printed program; a digital program leveraging our traditional Guidebook app; or a hybrid approach. At this point, we do expect to continue to have a printed program, though it may be a different format than we’ve used in the past.

A leader in public finance.

On the Tennis front, Lily Ng from Bank of the West has got things lined up for another fantastic event – this year will be the 8th annual Tennis Mixer at the fabulous Indian Wells Tennis Garden. This popular event taking place on January 8, 2019 will have a limited number of participants and the usual Free Pro Group Clinic. Fees will include lunch, the clinic, court fees, racket rental, tennis balls, goodie bag, snacks, and water. We’re also still planning the earlier launch of the online registration along with more detailed session information. And we’re also getting close to finalizing the successful pre-conference sessions, the popular coaching session, and other supporting content that we’ll highlight in more detail in the next magazine editions.

With that, I looking forward to traveling onboard my Milano to Palm Springs in 2019 and look forward to joining all of you, as together we are Guardians of the Finance Galaxy!

Since 2000, we have represented more than 750 California local agencies. Our singular focus enables us to provide you with the expertise you need to make your project a reality.

Joan Michaels Aguilar

475 Sansome Street, Suite 1700 San Francisco, CA 94111 415.391.5780 tel 415. 276.2088 fax info@joneshall.com www.joneshall.com 11

CSMFO MAGAZINE JULY 2018

INSIDE CSMFO

CSMFO Shines a Spotlight on...

Scott Catlett

Finance Director/ City Treasurer for the City of Yorba Linda

Interviewed By James Russell-Field 1 – Tell the readers a little bit about yourself…

Outside of work I’m a dad to two boys – Drew (7) and Nate (18 months). I grew up in Texas, initially in a small ranching town and later in San Antonio. I attended college in New Orleans where I studied to be an architect for my first two years. I decided that architecture as a career wasn’t for me and ended up with a business degree. My wife of 13 years and I met when we were both living in New Orleans after college. She was from Southern California, so after Hurricane Katrina made us rethink our decision to live in New Orleans longterm, we decided to move to California in 2005.

I’ve worked in government for 12 years now, having spent the first part of my career working for James Russell-Field, several firms as a consultant to state City of Thousand Oaks and local government. I valued the experience that starting out in consulting at a young age provided, but I travelled most weeks all over the country and wasn’t home much.

Since then, I’ve really enjoyed putting down long-term work roots in Riverside and now Yorba Linda.

My transition was somewhat by Scott Catlett, Finance chance, in that I happened to hear about a job at the City of Riverside Director/ City treasurer for the City as a Budget Analyst. Since I lived in Riverside at the time, I decided of Yorba Linda to apply and maybe try something different. As luck would have it, Brent Mason thought I could do the job even though I had never worked directly for a government agency, and the rest, as they say, is history.

I spent two years as a Principal Budget Analyst, two as Budget and Debt Manager, five as Assistant Finance Director, and then came to Yorba Linda as Finance Director a little over two years ago.

2 – When and why did you first join CSMFO? I first joined CSMFO in 2006 when I transitioned from consulting to working for a government agency. I was a passive member at first, but over time, I became actively involved in various CSMFO Committees as a member and later Chair, and served a year as Chapter Chair for the Inland Empire Chapter. CSMFO has really helped me build my professional network, and I’ve met some of my good friends through my CSMFO involvement along the way.

3 – What have you worked on in the last month?

This time of year, I think we are all busy with similar things – preparing for the current year’s audit and rolling out the budget for the new fiscal year. Beyond that, I’ve been working on lots of smaller projects. One of the things that I’ve enjoyed about working for a smaller agency for the past few years, is that I get to do a variety of things and get involved with helping other departments in a way that was never possible when I worked for a large city.

4 – What aspect(s) of your job do you enjoy the most?

Along those same lines, I think the part of my job that gives me the most satisfaction is solving problems – particularly when the problems are making life difficult for others in my agency and Finance can help.

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5 – What has been your favorite project in your career? (Doesn’t necessarily have to be from your current position/agency)

7 – What are some of the important issues you foresee in the future of California finance?

That’s a tough question. I really like projects that allow me to be creative, which is sometimes a challenge in a career like government finance. I would say my favorite project in my career was back when I was a consultant. One of the firms that I worked for developed software, in addition to providing financial and planning consulting services. While working there, I was assigned to a team developing software for state departments of transportation to manage their airport systems’ financial and planning data. My role was as the subject matter expert on tracking the financial aspects of CIP projects.

I learned a ton in the two years that I worked on that project, and it was really fun to see the ideas that we put on paper, turned into actual working software that was put into use by a number of states.

I think the sustainability of current trends in public sector compensation and benefits in California is a subject that all of us are worried about. I talk with colleagues all the time who are making tougher and tougher budget decisions each year. Increasing CalPERS rates are the most concerning and publicized challenge, but pressure to adjust salaries upward in order to keep up with peer jurisdictions (many of which may be in superior financial condition) is a related challenge that is also a cause for concern.

8 – What do you enjoy outside of work?

I enjoy spending time with my family, hiking in the mountains, and vacations when I’m fortunate enough to get one. For the last four years, I’ve also taught at CSU San Bernardino part-time in the MPA program. I get a lot of satisfaction out of my teaching, as I’m helping build the next generation of leaders in government service.

6 – What is the most challenging situation you’ve faced in your career?

I went through a period in Riverside when I was the Assistant Finance Director, where a community group was bombarding the City with public records requests related to financial transactions, in an effort to uncover supposed malfeasance on the part of the City’s leadership. For a period of several years, I spent something like 25% of my time preparing responses to public records requests and trying to anticipate the goal of each request so that we could adequately prepare to respond publicly to the next accusation. At the end of the day, things calmed down, but those were a tough couple of years. It was very challenging trying to get my job done with the requests coming at us constantly. But, we survived, and we were gratified that they never found a single thing of substance through all of those requests.

9 – Do you have a favorite quote?

I’m a big comedy movie guy. Though I should probably have a profound quote to share, the reality is everything that comes to mind is from movies. Clearly, I should spend more time reading!

10 – If Hollywood made a movie about your life, what actor/actress would you like to see cast as you?

I would say the Harvey Keitel of 1994 as Mr. Wolf in Pulp Fiction. That guy knew how to get stuff done. And I liked his car.

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CSMFO MAGAZINE JULY 2018

FEATURED ARTICLE

Smart City Initiatives

Creative solutions for financing smart infrastructure

Written By Kristen West Smart technology has made its way into virtually every aspect of our daily lives since the inception of the smart phone in the mid-2000s. Since then, cognitive computing technologies, such as machine learning and Kristen West, Consultant, Vavrinek, artificial intelligence, are radically Trine, Day & Co., LLP changing how we value the quality of our interactions. They relinquish us from the mundane act of merely doing; they create space for living, learning, connecting and thriving.

reconstruction is inevitable. Just as city blueprints are going back to the drawing board to incorporate smart infrastructure, traditional capital project funding and financing sources will also require a think-outside-the-box strategy.

What Makes a Smart City So Smart?

A smart city is a technological ecosystem of citizens, municipalities, businesses and non-profits connected through a network of technology made up of smart infrastructure.

Connected through sensors, fiber optics, and broadband Wi-Fi, these technologies facilitate the ease of communication and transmission of data in real time, generating efficiencies in operations while also stimulating community collaboration that enriches the wellbeing of the public.

At the same time technology is becoming more commonplace, populations are increasing in dense urban areas causing cities to rethink what public service looks like in the age of technology. Digital

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Cities with Smart Initiatives

Creative funding and financing strategies

There are a great number of smart city initiatives around the globe, including these powerful examples.

With progress comes a certain set of challenges.

City budgets are already strained, and the thought of sinking the balance sheet by leveraging more debt is far from anyone’s priority list. However, traditional financing models alone are not the only solution. As city infrastructure is reimagined, so too are the means for covering their cost and addressing the added burdens of (1) maintaining these new devices as technology continues to rapidly evolve and (2) overseeing data collection, storage and cyber security. Below are four strategies finance officers should consider when adapting smart infrastructure into their agencies.

Chicago, Illinois The value of data and analytics helped the Department of Public Health in the City of Chicago assist health inspectors systematically assess more than 15,000 restaurants more efficiently. Using historical data and algorithms, they determined establishments at greatest risk of violations. The results of this new tool increased the number of critical violations detected in the community by 15%, preventing sicknesses by greatly affecting deterrents of food borne illnesses.

Partnership models

Kansas City, Missouri

In a 2017 report by Deloitte, Inc., entitled, “Funding and Financing Smart Cities,” Deloitte explains the rebalancing of risk and reward through revenue sharing models such as pay-for-performance. Relationships with the private industry allows investors to absorb loss leaders in the upfront costs of long-term investments, while implementing piloted phase-in approaches of new technological concepts into city grids over time. Revenue generated from new infrastructure is used to cover the cost of the investment and maintain the assets into the future, including routine maintenance and implementing technological improvements, ensuring smart cities stay on the cutting-edge.

Streetlights in Kansas City were outfit with sensors along a new stretch of their light-rail. The sensors gather traffic and parking data along the route and go so far as to even count foot traffic. This entices local entrepreneurs interested in areas where new storefronts might be economical. With all this foot traffic comes congestion and cleanliness issues as well, so the city is able to also monitor disturbances and deploy maintenance crews when attention is needed most.

Louisville, Kentucky A partnership of public and private organizations provided some 1,000 asthma sufferers with inhalers equipped with sensors. These powerful little devices tracked when and where users were administering puffs, giving public health officials direct insights into areas with poor air quality. In response, the city planted trees in areas with poorer air quality. One area in particular saw a 60% reduction in air particles known to cause breathing issues. Users of the inhalers and their healthcare providers reported that the devices provided them with more measurable data that they incorporated into their treatment plans, and patients saw improvements to their overall health.

Revenue generating potential of collected data The data collected and shared can be thought of as an asset of its own in the form of intellectual capital.

A concept known as “monetizing data” is new to municipalities. Traditionally, data has been public record.

It is not to say that this will change, but the value the data creates is stimulating commerce, as every byte of information has 10x the revenue generating potential. In the case of Kansas City mentioned above, where sensors are monitoring traffic and parking, private companies like WAZE and other app developers for parking assistance use the same traffic data to map traffic patterns and track available parking spots. Leveraging data in this way stimulates local economies and has the potential to become a cost recovery mechanism for municipalities, and the possibilities are endless when communities are empowered with data in the market place.

Mobile, Alabama The City of Mobile supplied building code inspectors with smartphones, documenting more than 1,000 code enforcement violations around its city limits in roughly one week’s time. This was an endeavor that was never even thought possible with traditional paper tracking systems, let alone in such a short amount of time. What it did next was even more valuable. The city cross-referenced their findings with county records creating an index of problem properties cataloged in public databases, which is very attractive to local non-profits and property investors, in a city in need of revitalization.

continues on next page

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CSMFO MAGAZINE JULY 2018

Smart City Initiatives

impossible. The next recommendation would be to educate yourself. Seek out additional resources, articles, and training Reach out to other organizations, ask questions, and see what other finance officers are doing.

Some possible outcomes might include opportunities to collaborate on a joint venture, creating an infrastructure JPA, or gaining advice and direction from early adopters who have broached similar initiatives before. These are all options that stem from healthy conversations by breaking down silos across organizations and considering new and creative ways of molding your city into the future.

Grant funding and in-kind contributions A new take on grant funding is coming in the form of competitive bidding. In 2015, the US Department of Transportation rolled out their “Smart City Challenge.”

The challenge invited cities across the United States to submit their proposals on smart city initiatives for a chance to receive $40 million in funding. Likewise, Smart Cities Council has a similar program. They call it a “Readiness Challenge.” Each year, the Council takes applications from all municipalities in North America, awarding five agencies a year’s worth of one-on-one coaching, workshops, and other products and services worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, all free of charge.

Resources Below are some suggested resources for staying up to date with smart cities.

Crowdsourcing In the spirit of competition, some cities are looking to their community members for help. Under the direction of the Chief Data Officer in the Office of the Mayor, the City of Los Angeles bolsters collaboration between the city and its citizens by hosting an annual summer camp and hackathon. The results of these initiatives aid the city in developing solutions to its needs, while also inspiring opportunities for local commerce by igniting the minds of young people in the community. The City of West Sacramento recently did something similar. The city launched an open call to all community members to submit app design ideas that addressed publictransportation concerns. Traditional public transportation services were doing their best to meet the needs of the community, but they wanted to do more. The city recently sponsored a ride-share service that not only bridges this gap but is also one of the first of its kind transitioning public transportation from fixed routes to on-demand service.

Deloitte http://smartcity.deloitte.com Smart Cities Council http://smartcitiescouncil.com Smart Cities Connect https://smartcitiesconnect.org/ US Department of Transportation https://www.transportation.gov/smartcity CityLab (The Atlantic) https://www.citylab.com/ Consumer Electronics Show https://www.ces.tech/ SXSW Cities Summit https://www.sxsw.com/conference/cities-summit/

What to do next

Kristen West works as a consultant with Vavrinek, Trine, Day & Co., LLP, based out of their Sacramento, CA location. She has 8 years of experience with the firm in the area of accounting and finance management. Currently, she is pursuing an MSA degree with a concentration in Data Analytics at the University of Illinois UrbanaChampaign. Kristen has a personal interest in the topic of Smart City initiatives and is active with the Smart Cities Council in her free time.

Together with her continuing education in Data Analytics and passion for Smart Cities, she aspires to help agencies achieve their objectives by incorporating innovative approaches into the decision-making process. Kristen may be contacted for questions or comments by email at kwest@vtdcpa.com.

As a finance officer, you may be wondering what your role might be within smart city initiatives. The first step when considering smart city initiatives is to proactively keep a finger on the pulse of your organization’s efforts so you can aid in supporting its overall goals and mission. See if smart infrastructure has been considered, and find out if they are facing any challenges. may be unaware that technological solutions are available, and others might think they are out of reach or even 16

Piper Jaffray is committed to California municipal finance

For more information, contact the following representatives from our California public finance team: Mark Adler Managing Director 310 297-6010 mark.j.adler@pjc.com

Ralph Holmes Managing Director 415-616-1720 ralph.j.holmes@pjc.com

Tom Innis Managing Director 415 616-1635 thomas.p.innis@pjc.com

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CSMFO MAGAZINE JULY 2018

FEATURED ARTICLE

Trending Now- West Sacramento’s Homelessness and Community Impact Action Plan Written By Sam Cooney

Sam Cooney, Superintendent of Parks and Grounds, City of West Sacramento

Addressing homelessness in the City is a multifaceted issue which requires the City to balance the welfare and access to services of the homeless population with the need to address the legal and environmental implications of the behaviors commonly associated with homelessness. On November 8, 2016, the citizens of the City of West Sacramento voted to approve an additional quarter cent sales and use tax (0.25 percent) to raise revenue for any legal governmental purpose. The Measure E funding policy designates a total of $750,000; with $250,000 to Reducing Homelessness (including providing access to services and housing or shelter) and $500,000 to Reducing Community Impacts of Homelessness (including clean up and enforcement). It is important to note this funding does not supplant but leverages existing efforts and budgets dedicated to mitigating the impacts of homelessness throughout the community.

Status The City implemented a “services first” model to address homelessness in public and open space areas in February 2016. A Public and Open Space Cleanup and Enforcement committee (POSCE, pronounced “posse”) was formed and meets regularly to coordinate efforts across Police, Public Works, Code Enforcement and the Parks departments. The funding approved by voters in November 2016 allows staff to continue and enhance the work undertaken through the Public and Open Space Clean-Up and Enforcement program. Police enforcement resources support the “services first” methodology and must be an option to be utilized with discretion when appropriate. The initiative also includes pursuit of a site for developing Permanent Supportive Housing. To date, the City has designated the following elements in the Homelessness and Community Impacts program: Homeless Coordinator Critical to the continued success of the Public and Open Space Cleanup and Enforcement and the Rapid Response Team is the Homeless Coordinator. As part of the 60 Rapid Response Actions, the Homeless Coordinator identified and offered services to 232 households in need; provided services and relocated 103 homeless persons; and assisted in serving notices and removing those unwilling to accept services. Comparing these efforts to those in FY 16/17, the numbers of persons contacted/referred to appropriate services and exiting homelessness thus far in FY 17/18 (with three months still to go) already exceeds the totals for FY16/17.

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Homeless Coordinator Actions

The Public Space element places emphasis on litter cleanup, graffiti abatement, landscape improvements, and uses the principles of CPTED (crime prevention thru environmental design) to elevate the aesthetics of these areas and diminish the desire to loiter, litter, and otherwise cause a public nuisance.

FY 2016/2017- Number of Encounters 141, People Housed 94 FY 2017/2018- Number of Encounters 232, People Housed 103 Rapid Response Team/Camp Cleanup

To verify positive effects of the program, staff completed an RFQ process to create a list of contractors for program utilization and created an ongoing database identifying camps, clients, fiscal accounting, environmental actions, and problem areas to continually monitor the effectiveness of the program. Data from the platform indicates that the program is very successful in not only increasing the numbers of persons exiting homelessness as a result of contact with the Homeless Coordinator, but also in improving the aesthetics of the City by removing blight conditions. As shown in the table below, since January 2017, staff have fielded 124 illegal camping complaints.

The Rapid Response Team was created to respond to immediate requests by the Police Department and Code Enforcement to abate graffiti, clean up trash/debris, and for vegetation management. The program has allowed the City to double the number of targeted cleanups and to use continuing patrols to ensure rehabitation of unauthorized campsites is kept to a minimum. The program has partnered with other stakeholders (i.e., Union Pacific, Caltrans, Reclamation Districts, private property owners) to locate, identify, and clean 296 camps and debris areas from City public and open space land. As part of these efforts, 60 Rapid Response Actions were conducted, and the stakeholders collected and disposed of 2,004 cubic yards of trash and debris.

The complaints have now leveled off, averaging 7.33 complaints per month versus 7.71 complaints prior to the increased services.

Vegetation Management Through a collaboration with the Fire Department and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, staff successfully accomplished vegetation management and fire suppression efforts while protecting the riparian habitat on 65 acres of public and open space, including the use of the grazing goats, invasive tree and shrub removal, and growth prevention. These actions encourage positive use of open space and reduce the establishment of illegal camps.

Sam Cooney is a Superintendent of Parks and Grounds City of West Sacramento. Sam has over 20 years of experience in the parks and recreation including the last 10 years with the City of West Sacramento. As a Parks and Grounds Superintendent, Sam’s area of responsibility includes parks maintenance, open space and clean up management, trail sweeping, and homeless cleanup and enforcement. Sam is the current President of the Northern Central Valley Chapter of the Maintenance Superintendent Association. In his spare time, Sam loves to golf, travel, fish, and spend time with his wife and granddaughter.

Public Space The aforementioned actions push deep-rooted individuals out into the more visible public areas causing an increase in demand to mitigate the effects on the public spaces (streets, sidewalks, business frontages, transit stops, and parks). Although this may make the impacts of homelessness seemingly more visible, this also makes the homeless population more accessible and available to link to services.

19

CSMFO MAGAZINE JULY 2018

INSIDE CSMFO

Taking Advantage of Special CSMFO Chapter Funding Written By Tim Przybyla and Paul Melikian Each chapter is given a $500 annual allocation for support from the CSMFO. This year, the CSMFO Board agreed to provide an additional $25,000 for initiatives to drive up attendance at chapter meetings.

Tim Przybyla, Finance Director, City The South San Joaquin Valley Chapter took advantage of this funding to boost attendance of Madera at a special luncheon that took place on April 20th, with Michael Coleman as the special guest speaker. Michael treated us with two one-hour workshops – one before and one after lunch. With the extra funding, our Chapter elected to reduce the cost of attendance from the regular price of $25 per person to $15 per person. Approximately 50 Paul Melikian, CPFO, Assistant City people attended the luncheon, which was a Manager, City of record attendance for the Chapter. Typical Reedley attendance averages about 30. Michael Coleman’s presentations were very timely, informative and of interest to all who attended.

The combination of having Mr. Coleman as our special guest speaker and reducing the cost by $10 per person provided for a great day of learning with an outstanding group of municipal finance professionals at a very reasonable price!

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The Central San Joaquin Valley Chapter would like to thank the CSFMO Board for providing this promotional funding and offer a special thanks to Drew Corbett for coming up with the idea to charge the discounted rate of $15 to drive up our attendance. We would encourage other chapters to take advantage of this great funding opportunity to promote themselves in a creative manner that will provide the most positive impact for their membership.

Tim Przybyla has served as a Finance Director for nearly seventeen years, with the last almost five years being in the City of Madera. Prior to municipal finance, Tim spent five years in public accounting as an auditor and maintains an active CPA status. He appreciates the benefits of networking and has not hesitated to volunteer to serve in leadership positions for various organizations. Tim doesn’t really know much, himself. But, he has made acquaintances with smart people like Tina Rivera, Paul Melikian, Jim Zervis and others, who always have the answers.

Paul Melikian is the Assistant City Manager for the City of Reedley, and has spent 15 years of his life in municipal finance that he is never getting back. Paul has a MBA from Fresno State Craig School of Business, and has the distinction of being the 546th Certified Public Finance Officer. He spends most of his free time lately losing weight, playing with his three children, or worrying about Unfunded Accrued Liability.

FEATURED ARTICLE

Your Agency’s Budget Has Been Adopted, So Now What?

Written By Grace Castaneda

Grace Castaneda, Budget Analyst, City of San Mateo

proposed/adopted, and for CSMFO, the deadline is 90 days after the start of the agency’s fiscal year. After all the work of putting the budget document together, it is a great achievement For agencies whose fiscal years run from July to get nationally and/or state recognized for delivering a highquality budget document.

1 to June 30, the end of June usually marks the adoption of the agency’s budget for the Year-end reporting of budget to actuals next fiscal year. Getting the budget adopted After months of attention focusing on the next fiscal year, it is time to is no small feat; it is a culmination of months look at the current fiscal year and finish off some budget-related tasks of work that drove the budget development process from strategic planning to execution when the current year has closed. One of these tasks is to report out the current fiscal year’s budget to actuals. Budget-to-actuals to a final adopted budget. So now that the budget is adopted, what’s next? Below are comparisons are reported in the CAFR, and common amongst agencies. They are also reported in financial summaries such as a a few common next steps that agencies go through after adoption. Following this article quarterly financial report to show how the revenues and expenditures are comments from CSFMO members about of a fund has ended the year compared to the budget. what’s next after adopting their budgets.

Access One of the first things to do, is to produce the adopted budget book, and to ensure public access to the document. In my agency, once the adopted budget document is finalized, we distribute the budget books to public locations such as the libraries and city hall, to our Councilmembers, and to select staff within the organization. We also post the adopted budget on our website.

The budget serves as an agency’s financial plan and as an important communication tool for decision making, so making it easily accessible to staff and the public is an essential task.

Budget Awards Submissions Another typical next step is to apply for a budget award. Both GFOA and CSMFO have awards programs that agencies can apply for, and both have set criteria in their awards programs that reflect both the guidelines established by the National Advisory Council on State and Local Budgeting and GFOA’s best practices on budgeting. Agencies can submit their proposed or adopted budget, so in fact, it is not necessary to wait until the budget is adopted. Submission deadline for GFOA is 90 days after the budget is

In my agency, we have also established metrics and reported them in our adopted budget documents to demonstrate the effectiveness of budgetary control in our General Fund, a major governmental fund. Reporting on budget to actuals is an important performance measurement to not only demonstrate but keep an organization accountable on how it has performed operationally against its approved budget.

Encumbrance Rollovers Another item after budget adoption is the carry-over of expenditure commitments from the current fiscal year to the next fiscal year.

Also known as encumbrances, these are commitments for goods or services funded in the current year, but are not received before the end of the current year. This process of rolling over encumbrances is done during the year-end process, and adds to the adopted budget in the next fiscal year.

Breathe Maybe the most important thing to do after budget adoption is to take a moment and breathe. The development and delivery of a budget is the culmination of months of work, and at times that means running at full speed day in and day out. As described above, there are things to do after budget adoption, and it makes sense to keep the momentum and move forward to tackle those tasks. But pausing is important too. Pause to take in the moment and realize the accomplishment of getting the budget out. Celebrate with your staff.

Reflect. Reflect on what went well and what didn’t, so that the lessons learned will help the next budget be better than the last.

“After budget adoption, we will have a fiscal new year celebration and move right into audit preparation.” Jennifer Wakeman, Financial Services continues on next page 21

CSMFO MAGAZINE JULY 2018

Your Agency’s Budget Has Been Adopted, So Now What?

“Heard around the Water Cooler”

“After budget adoption, we will have a fiscal new year celebration and move right into audit preparation.” Jennifer Wakeman, Financial Services Manager, City of Lafayette

We asked CSFMO Board members and committee members about what’s next for them.

Are there any significant changes in store for next year’s budget?

“We surfaced after an early adoption of our 5% reduced budget, took a big breath and are going back in to work on extending from a 3-year to a 10-year Capital Investment Plan, to implement Action Lab initiatives, and continue our community based budget focus groups.” Marcus Pimentel, Finance Director, City of Santa Cruz Manager, City of Lafayette

“About this time every year, I started thinking about the prospects of adopting a two-year budget. I really need to explore this further.”

Steve Heide, Finance Director, Chino Valley Fire District “Budget season is never truly over so even though I am brand new to the City of Eastvale, I will continue to monitor the City’s financial situation and provide input to the City Manager and Council. The City is currently exploring alternatives to retirement plans and also whether to stay a City with mostly contracted employees, or bringing those employees in-house.” Ernie Reyna, Finance Director, City of Eastvale “We just adopted our first two-year budget. We will be planning for the mid-period updates and how that will be incorporated into our budgeting procedures.” Carrie Corder, Assistant General Manager/CFO, Cucamonga Valley Water District

Grace Castaneda is the Budget Analyst at the City of San Mateo and has been in local government for the past ten years. During her time in telling San Mateo’s budget story, Grace helped revamp her City’s budget document, which resulted in winning the GFOA budget award for the first time in the City’s history. After having her second child, Grace started running to preserve her sanity. Grace is a UCLA Bruin with a degree in Business Economics. She serves as the Chair of the CSMFO Membership Committee.

What are you doing after budget adoption?

“Take a breath, celebrate my team’s accomplishments, reflect on the challenges we faced, and how we can continue to refine and improve in the future.” Richard Lee, Finance Director, City of South San Francisco

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FEATURED ARTICLE

Funding Sources for Water and Wastewater Projects - Part II Written By Greg Swartz and Tom Innis

Greg Swartz, Piper Jaffray

California’s local governments can access a wide range of funding sources for water and wastewater projects.

This article is intended to enable local governments to focus on the most likely sources for specific needs.

water, wastewater, or combined revenues. Local governments should expect to borrow or issue above a “practical” minimum given expenses associated with reviewing, rating, documenting, originating, closing, and/or servicing the debt. Generally, the minimums serve as a guide and are not fixed – see Table 2 as a guide.

Local governments should also expect a maximum borrowing amount subject to: • borrower limits based on “debt coverage” or a ratio of annual net revenues divided annual debt service ranging from a standard 1.2 to 1 to a less common low of 1 to 1; and

There are nine funding sources commonly used

by California local governments to finance water and wastewater projects categorized into three broad sources: • Government ~ Includes state and federal sources that provide grants and loans at below market rates.

Tom Innis, Piper Jaffray

• Market ~ With assistance from a financial advisor, placement agent, or underwriter, local governments sell debt to a wide range of investors (“public offering”) or place debt to a single investor or a limited number of investors (“placement”).

• Other ~ The third category includes lenders affiliated with national boards or national/state associations to provide easier and less expensive access to capital markets.

Each of the funding sources share the following characteristics: • fund a wide range of water and wastewater projects; • require final maturities equal to the useful life of the project or the typical final maturity noted; • limit debt to a ratio of pledged annual revenues to annual debt service; and • document debt as bonds, installment agreements, certificates of participation, or loans.

• source limits driven by investor/market expectations (placements) or capacity issues (government sources).

As an example, a local government may be able to borrow $100,000,000 based on its “debt coverage” but a funding source may have capacity to fund only $50,000,000. In particular, government sources may limit funding to individual recipients. In this circumstance, the local government should rely on multiple funding sources to fully fund the project.

As a general guideline, local governments should focus on public offerings on WIFIA to co-fund projects in excess of $50 million. For smaller projects under $5 million where programmatic requirements (prevailing wages, procurement preferences, environmental assessments, etc…) can be disproportionately challenging, local governments should focus on IBank, PFA, and SDA. Rural and Disadvantaged Communities Three sources provide all or target a portion of funding to rural or financially disadvantaged local governments as noted in Table 3.

Growth or Development Growth or development projects are likely to be funded by one or a combination of developer contributions, impact fees, or debt secured/ repaid with assessments subject to the value of the benefitting property.

In these circumstances, local governments should focus on funding through IBank, placements, or public offerings. continues on next page

System Wide Benefits Generally, projects with system wide benefits are secured and repaid by 23

CSMFO MAGAZINE JULY 2018

Funding Sources for Water and Wastewater Projects

wastewater projects categorized into three broad sources: 

Government ~ Includes state and federal sources that provide grants and loans at below market rates.



Market ~ With assistance from a financial advisor, placement agent, or underwriter, local governments sell debt to a wide range of investors (“public offering”) or place debt to a single investor or a limited number of investors (“placement”).



Other ~ The third category includes lenders affiliated with national boards or national/state associations to provide easier and less expensive access to capital markets.

Table 1: Overview of Sources

Grants Available

Maximum Rate

Maximum Final Maturity (Years)

Infrastructure & Economic Development Bank (IBank)

No

AAA

30

State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB)

Yes

50% of AA-

30

USDA Rural Development (RD)

Yes

Water Infrastructure Finance & Innovation Act (WIFIA)

No

U.S. Treasury

30

No

Varies by Issuer

10

No

Varies by Issuer

30

Source Government

40

Market Placement Public Offering



Other

source limits driven by investor/market expectations (placements) or capacity issues (government sources).

As an example, a local government may be able to borrow $100,000,000 based on its “debt coverage” but30 a No Varies by Borrower funding source may have capacity to fund only $50,000,000. In particular, government sources may limit CoBank No or capacity Varies byrely Borrower 30 tolimits individual In this circumstance, local government should on multiple sources). funding funding source drivenrecipients. by investor/market expectationsthe (placements) issues (government sources to fully fund the project.

Public Finance Authority (PFA) No AA + 0.25% 30 As an example, a local government may be able to borrow $100,000,000 based on its “debt coverage” but a Table 2: Minimum & Maximum funding source may haveDebt capacity to fund only $50,000,000. In particular, government sources may limit Each of the funding sources share the following characteristics: funding to individual recipients.“Practical” In this circumstance, the local government Maximum should rely on multiple funding Debt sources to fully fund the project.  fund a wide range of water and wastewater projects; CA Special District Association Finance Corporation (SDA)

Source

Minimum Debt

Borrower Limits

Source Limits

 require final maturities equal to the useful life of the project or the typical final maturity CoBank noted; Capacity Table 2: Minimum & Maximum Debt $250,000 CoBank Debt Coverage  limit debt to a ratio of pledged annual revenues to annual debt service; and “Practical” Maximum Debt IBank  document debt as bonds, installment $500,000 agreements, certificates Debt of Coverage participation, or loans. Available Funding

Source Minimum Debt Borrower Limits Source Limits PFA $1,000,000 Debt Coverage $30,000,000 System Wide Benefits CoBank $250,000 Debt Coverage CoBank Capacity Generally, projects with system$250,000 wide benefits are secured Debt and Coverage repaid by water, wastewater, combined Placement Varies or

by Investors IBank revenues. Local governments should $500,000expect to borrow or issue Debtabove Coverage Available a “practical” minimum given Funding expenses Public associated Offering with reviewing, rating, $1,000,000 Debt Coverage documenting, originating, closing, and/or servicing the debt. Generally, the PFA $1,000,000 Debt Coverage $30,000,000 are not fixed – see Table 2 asDebt a guide.

RD minimums serve as a guide and $250,000 Coverage Available Funding Placement $250,000 Debt Coverage Varies by Investors expect a maximum borrowingDebt amount subject to: SDA Local governments should also$1,000,000 Coverage Public Offering $1,000,000 Debt Coverage SWRCB $250,000 Coverage Available Funding  borrower limits based on “debt coverage” or a ratio of Debt annual net revenues divided annual debt service RD $250,000 Debt Coverage Available Funding ranging from a standard 1.2 to 1 to a less common low of 1 to 1; and WIFIA $25,000,000 Debt Coverage Available Funding SDA $1,000,000 Debt Coverage

As a general guideline, local governments should focus on public offerings on WIFIA to co-fund projects in $250,000 Debt Coverage Available Funding excess of $50 million. For smaller projects under $5 million where programmatic requirements (prevailing environmental assessments,Debt etc…) can be disproportionately challenging, WIFIA wages, procurement preferences, $25,000,000 Coverage Available Funding local governments should focus on IBank, PFA, and SDA. As a general guideline, local governments should focus on public offerings on WIFIA to co-fund projects in Rural of and$50 Disadvantaged excess million. For Communities smaller projects under $5 million where programmatic requirements (prevailing Three sources provide all or target a portion of funding to rural or financially disadvantaged local governments wages, procurement preferences, environmental assessments, etc…) can be disproportionately challenging, as noted in Table 3. local governments should focus on IBank, PFA, and SDA. SWRCB

Rural andfor Disadvantaged CommunitiesCommunities Table 3: Sources Rural Areas or Disadvantaged Three sourcesRequired provide Recipients all or target a portion of funding to rural or financially disadvantaged local governments Targeted Recipients Source as noted in Table 3.

CoBank

Rural Areas

Table 3: Sources for Rural Areas or Disadvantaged Communities RD Population of 10,000 or Less Disadvantaged Communities Required Recipients Targeted Recipients Source SWRCB Portion of Funding to Disadvantaged Communities CoBank Rural Areas

Growth or Development Population of 10,000 or Less Disadvantaged Communities Growth or development projects are likely to be funded by one or a combination of developer contributions, subjectoftoFunding the value of the benefitting property. In these SWRCB impact fees, or debt secured/repaid with assessmentsPortion to Disadvantaged Communities circumstances, local governments should focus on funding through IBank, placements, or public offerings.

RD

Growth or Development Stormwater Projects Growth or development projects are likely to be funded by one or a combination of developer contributions, impact fees, or debt secured/repaid with assessments subject to the value of the benefitting property. In these circumstances, local governments should focus on funding through IBank, placements, or public offerings.

24 Stormwater Projects

Stormwater Projects Depending on security/repayment source, local governments should focus on placements, public offerings, SWRCB, and WIFIA to fund stormwater projects. Generally, the simpler the security/ repayment source, local governments could obtain grants and subsidized loans from SWRCB.

!

Water Source Remediation If a local government intends to remediate groundwater sources, likely funding sources depend on security/ repayment and the end users of remediated water. If secured/repaid with revenues, focus on CoBank, IBank, PFA, placements, public offerings, SWRCB, and WIFIA. If secured/repaid by assessments or other security or if the project benefits private interests, focus on CoBank, placements, or public offerings.

BANKING RFP

Water Source Acquisition or Development

VALUATION

If a local government intends to acquire water sources or construct dams, reservoirs, or transmission lines within undisturbed areas, it should focus on CoBank, IBank, PFA, placements, public offerings, and SDA. Invariably, such projects involve water rights or environmental impacts that government sources find challenging to support.

SERVICES

Non-Point Source Pollution Projects

Plus Much More!

If a local government sponsors a non-point source pollution project - like on-site treatment of animal wastes at a feeding operation, likely funding sources include CoBank, placements, public offerings, and SWRCB. If a private party secures debt, focus on CoBank, and placements.

CPA SERVICES INCLUDE: ü Fully quantified scoring methodology ü In-depth interview questions ü Ensure apples-to-apples comparison ü Design optimal bank account structure

Author Greg Swartz coordinates Piper Jaffray’s Utility/SRF Finance practice nationally with co-author Tom Innis who manages Piper

ü Recommendations for banking tools

Jaffray’s Water and Wastewater practice in California. Most recently they served as joint senior manager for the State of

ü Design internal controls over banking

California Clean Water State Revolving Fund Revenue Bonds and

ü And much more!

are working as special advisor to the San Francisco Public Utility Commission’s SRF/WIFIA program.

WWW.RAHBANCPA.COM Tel: (424) 901-3440; Email: srahban@rahbancpa.com

25

CSMFO MAGAZINE JULY 2018

FEATURED ARTICLE

My Reflections of My Service as a GASB Member 1

Written By David E. Sundstrom I want to talk about three key issues as we move forward: complexity in accounting, being responsive to the needs of all governments, and the importance of your input to our process.

Next year, starting July 1, will mark the beginning of my 10th and final year as a GASB member. There has been an apparent increase of GASB activity in the past nine years. When David E. Sundstrom, I started on the board, we were just GASB Board Member issuing statement number 57, OPEB Measurements by Agent Employers and Agent Multiple-Employer Plans.

At our last meeting, we approved statement number 89, Accounting for Interest Cost Incurred before the End of a Construction Period. The GASB averaged approximately 2.2 standards per year during its first 25 years and about 3.5 per year during the past nine years.

There is concern over the growing complexity of reporting requirements. The GASB did not create the transactions that are being reported – we are charged with the task of determining fair presentation. Accounting complexity will always follow the complexity of the transactions being reported.

Was it worth it? What did users gain from these efforts? Have we established and improved standards that, according to our mission statement “result(ed) in useful information for users of financial reports?” In my opinion, absolutely yes! Nine years ago, although we had a great framework for displaying net position, we were materially over-reporting net assets as we were not recognizing significant liabilities including pension liabilities, other liabilities relating to post-employment benefits, lease liabilities and deferred maintenance. We tackled the first three of those four major liabilities; some day I hope the GASB will address deferred maintenance.

26

We attempt to be responsive to those needs of all governments, large and small. Much of our guidance is not applicable to small government because they generally do not engage in many of the activities covered by the guidance. For example, most small governments do not engage in tax abatements, irrevocable split-interest agreements, derivative instruments, service concession agreements, have the types of component units specified by GASBS 80 or the asset retirement obligations covered by GASBS 83. In some cases, we have targeted relief to small governments – for example the alternative measurement method for measuring OPEB obligations for small plans, the prospective recognition of capital assets in GASBS 34 and its phased implementation schedule.

In closing, I focus on the basic premise that for a standard to be considered GAAP, it must be generally accepted.

The GASB is committed to following an open and orderly process for standards setting. We value your expressed opinions and evaluate every response to our draft documents. I know you are pressed for resources due in part to the efforts required to implement new standards.

Nevertheless, please keep your responses coming.

Thank you for your efforts in building transparency in governmental financial reporting.

!

REPORT PROGRAMMING & COMPILATION SERVICES

David E. Sundstrom is in his second and final term on the GASB which concludes on June 30, 2019. He was formally the Sonoma County Auditor-Controller, Treasurer-Tax collector.

Plus Much More!

As auditor, he oversaw the public’s money and monitored the county’s systems of internal control. As controller, he was responsible for the financial administration of a $1.3 billion budget. As treasurer, he facilitated the issuance of municipal

CPA SERVICES INCLUDE:

bonds and safely invested $1.6 billion in public funds held. As tax collector, he was responsible for the efficient collection of

•

Implementation of accounting systems;

served as a trustee of the Sonoma County Employees’ Retirement

•

Implementation of internal auditing systems

System helping to oversee a $2.2 billion investment pool.

•

Bank Reconciliation automation

Following Orange County’s bankruptcy in 1995, Mr. Sundstrom

•

Comprehensive Annual Financial Report

joined the county as its first director of internal audit and

•

State Controllers Report

helped lead the county’s recovery. He was then elected as the

•

SSRS and Cognos Reports

•

Chart of Accounts Design

•

Assistance with audit

local property taxes from 220,000 annual tax bills. He also

county auditor-controller was subsequently reelected for three additional four-year terms.

He is a member of numerous professional and community organizations, including the California State Society of Certified Public Accountants, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and the Government Finance Officers Association.

WWW.RAHBANCPA.COM

Mr. Sundstrom received his master of administration degree in finance accounting and management information systems from the

Tel: (424) 901-3440;

University of California-Davis.

1

Email: srahban@rahbancpa.com

The views expressed in this article are those of Mr. Sundstrom.

Official positions of the GASB are reached only after extensive research and due process.

27

CSMFO MAGAZINE JULY 2018

SPONSORED ARTICLE

Trending Now- South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc.

Part I – Caution about projecting revenue – a review of the Supreme Court’s decision

Written By Lloyd de Llamas The ruling should help California and local governments reduce uncollected taxes which in 2017, the Board of Equalization had estimated at $756 Million for cities, counties, county realignment, public safety and transactions tax districts, as well as shortfalls of $697 Million in the state’s revenues. The State may announce a plan for implementing the decision before this June 28th writing is published. However, the amounts to be gained and timing of full implementation will still be speculative.

On June 21, the Supreme Court ruled in South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc. that online retailers no longer qualify for “an arbitrary advantage over their competitors who collect state sales Lloyd de Llamas, taxes’” by claiming they don’t have Chairman of the Board a physical presence in the state. of Directors of HdL The Court’s decision overturned a previous 1967 ruling (National Bellas Hess Inc. v. Illinois) that mail order retailers were not required to collect tax if they have no physical nexus within a state and a 1992 reconfirmation of that ruling In Quill Corp v. North Dakota which limited sales tax collection to retailers with in-state property or employees.

California has been more proactive then most states in collecting unpaid use tax by using broad interpretations of what establishes physical nexus including the connection made by payment of commissions for successful sales leads if the annual sales from those referrals exceed $10,000 and the cumulative sales of the out-of-state retailer who receives the referral and pays the commission exceeds $1 Million. The state also requires businesses with annual gross receipts of $100,000 or more to register for reporting use tax; requires CPA’s to report unpaid use tax on client’s annual returns; and administers an aggressive program of auditing major businesses that includes auditors housed in Chicago, New York and Houston.

The 5-4 ruling also ended decades of congressional inaction and failed legislative proposals to deal with the growing inequity issues. Three Justices: Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch and Anthony Kennedy had recently expressed doubts about the Quill decision with Kennedy in 2015, noting that the ruling had produced a “startling shortfall” in many states as well as “unfairness to local retailers and customers.” South Dakota responded by enacting a law that requires merchants to collect a 4.5% sales tax if they have more than $100,000 in annual sales or more than 200 individual transactions in the state and then sued three large online retailers (Wayfair, Overstock.com and Newegg) for violating the law.

Equally important, the sheer size of California’s consumer market and growing competition over timely delivery of merchandise have forced companies to implement business models that fall within this state’s definition of physical nexus. As a result, most major online retailers including Amazon, Wayfair, Newegg, and QVC are already collecting California’s sales and use tax. The major holdouts consist largely of third-party retailers selling through sites such as Amazon, eBay, Wish.Com and Etsy.

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How the state deals with these smaller retailers in a way that avoids legal challenges could take some thought. Justice Kennedy in the court’s majority opinion, noted that South Dakota’s exclusion of smaller retailers was a factor in ruling on behalf of the South Dakota tax. Features of the South Dakota model he cited as preventing undue burdens and discrimination upon interstate commerce include: applying a safe harbor to those who transact only limited business in South Dakota; protection from retroactive payment obligations; single state level tax administration with uniform definitions of taxable products and services; and seller access to sales tax administration software paid for by the state.

Another potential reform that will require careful review is how to deal with online sales for California’s 268 local government transactions tax districts. Under Quill, in-state retailers had not been required to collect transactions taxes for a jurisdiction if the seller delivered the merchandise by common carrier and had no physical nexus in that jurisdiction. The challenge will be to come up with a collection and remittance system that is not overly burdensome for both retailers and customers.

It could take several quarters before we have a handle on how California fully implements the new ruling and the amounts of new revenue that can be anticipated. Further, it is not inconceivable that Congress might intervene with uniform, nationwide guidelines. Overstock.com and others are already requesting congressional action and expressing concerns about having to comply with patchworks of multiple and conflicting regulations for each of the states who are not currently part of the Streamlined Sales Tax Agreement.

It may be prudent to hold off on attempts at projecting new revenues from the Court’s ruling until the related issues are defined and resolved and better information becomes available.

Lloyd de Llamas serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of HdL and is cofounder of HdL Coren & Cone and HdL Software LLC. The three companies provide revenue enhancement, regulatory compliance, tax administration and economic development services to over 500 local jurisdictions in six states.

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CSMFO MAGAZINE JULY 2018

FEATURED ARTICLE

Trending Now- South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc. Part II – What’s next for local governments from this landmark case?

Written By Tracy Vesely

Tracy Vesely, Client Services, Avenue Insights & Analytics (MuniServices)

When was the last time local government received good news?

The June 21, 2018, historic Supreme Court of the United States’ decision on South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc., a landmark case concerning sales and use tax nexus standards, is certainly some of the best news local governments have seen in a very long time. The ruling upheld South Dakota’s remote seller statute, in effect allowing states to force e-commerce companies that lack an in-state physical presence to collect and remit their sales and use taxes – thereby boosting local sales tax revenues. This overrules the long-standing physical presence requirement established by Bellas Hess in 1967 and reaffirmed by the Court in Quill in 1992.

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Collecting sales tax from online purchases has been a controversial subject for decades, and the Supreme Court decision reflects that things are not completely settled. The ruling was a 5-4 decision, with Justice Kennedy writing for the majority together with Justices Thomas, Ginsburg, Alito, and Gorsuch. “Quill puts both local businesses and many interstate businesses with physical presence at a competitive disadvantage relative to remote sellers,” Kennedy wrote. “Remote sellers can avoid the regulatory burdens of tax collection and can offer de facto lower prices caused by the widespread failure of consumers to pay the tax on their own.”

While the opinion highlighted aspects of South Dakota’s statute that give protections to small sellers, it also made clear that Congress will always have a role to play in regulating interstate commerce.

There are still implementation details to be worked out at the state level, so exact timing of when increased sales tax revenue may materialize is unknown. We understand that the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration (CDTFA) is determining if California’s Long Arm Statute will apply, which would determine whether additional implementing legislation is needed.

Some stakeholders are also advocating for Congress to create a six-month moratorium on sales tax collection by remote retailers to help businesses comply with different state statutes.

We feel the GAO estimate is more applicable.

Nonetheless, because there remains uncertainty regarding the timing and true amount of new sales tax, agencies should use caution when estimating revenues.

The CDTFA has already pulled back its implementation guidelines and is expected to push back its August 1, 2018 collection start date as it sorts through the implementation details.

The Supreme Court decision impacts revenues from “use” taxes, meaning they are from out-of-state retailers coming into the State of California. For now, the revenues will flow to the countywide pools because the distinction remains for those businesses that have a physical presence in California versus not. For entities who receive Transactions and Use Tax (TUT), we anticipate the CDTFA will register the affected companies just like they would any other out-of-state business and instruct them to collect the tax rate of the “ship to” location, thus collecting the add-on tax rates.

Also, the Court’s decision does not address digital goods. For several years, the wireless industry has sought a moratorium on new or increased wireless taxes (content/digital goods such as music downloads).

A past industry argument has been that they cannot be compelled to collect Utility Users Tax) UUT because they do not have sufficient contacts with the taxing jurisdiction -- no physical presence. Because this argument was based on the now overturned Quill decision, it opens the door to extending a local UUT on digital downloads or streaming media.

What does this mean for local government? As a point of reference, total US Amazon retail e-commerce sales (gross merchandise value) are expected to hit $258.22 billion in 2018, up 29% over 2017—far exceeding total US retail e-commerce’s growth of 16%. While Amazon already collects and remits sales taxes, independent merchants on Amazon don’t and the overall volume and growth of the e-commerce industry is significant.

Details continue to unfold regarding this complex issue, including what is next and what may or may not be needed from the California State Legislature and/or Congress. We are excited for the potential positive impact of this Supreme Court ruling and our Government Relations Department is closely monitoring the implementation progress. You may contact Brenda Narayan, Director of Government Relations at Brenda.

Narayan@muniservices.com with any questions regarding the ruling.

There are a couple of numbers that have been floating around for the estimated amount of national uncollected sales taxes generated by internet sales: • $23 billion derived from the Marketplace Fairness legislation • $8 to $13 billion is a more recent estimate from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) https:// www.gao.gov/assets/690/688437.pdf

Tracy Vesely is the Director of Client Services at Avenue Insights & Analytics (MuniServices). Tracy has held leadership positions in local government for over 27 years in the areas of finance, budgeting, technology and administration. She has served as Administrative Services Director for the City of Walnut Creek, Director of Finance for the Cities of Hayward and San Leandro, Budget Manager for the City of Berkeley, as well as senior positions with the Administrative Office of the Courts and the County of Kern. Tracy has been an active member of several public-sector organizations, including serving as president of the League of California Cities Fiscal Officers Department and a member of the League’s Revenue and Taxation Policy Committee; as well as serving on the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) Economic Development and Capital Planning policy committee.

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CSMFO MAGAZINE JULY 2018

INSIDE CSMFO

Guardians of the Finance Galaxy Keynotes: A look into the future

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Written By David Cain

David Cain, Senior Advisor, CSMFO Communications Committee

Guardians of the Galaxy is based on a team of superhero’s who team up to find a ‘higher purpose’ as they battle evil in space. This ensemble of hero’s has a distinctive style, abundant thrills and no shortage of humor. This movie trims out the clutter and encourages you to enjoy yourself as you watch the superhero’s in action. Well, the 2019 Palm Springs host committee has set out to do the same with our three keynote speakers who will provide whiz-bang action, some laugh-out-loud moments and some key thought provoking take away lessons for each finance professional attending the CSFMO annual conference.

Ross Shafer – Future Proofing your Organization Join us for Wednesday’s opening keynote session as we listen to Ross Shafer talk about “Future Proofing our Organizations”.

Ross Shafer bought and sold 24 different businesses, all between the age of 21 and 30. He has also be in Show Business, hosting a number of TV game and talk shows. He has written 14 HR training books and nine business books. He is also known as the guy who invented Bill Nye the “Science Guy” before we knew him as the Science Guy. But, he is most proud of his best-selling cookbook .... Cook – Like – A – Stud: 38 recipes men can prepare in the garage….using their own tools!

Ross is a speaker without the speech! Ross will bring his sense of humor to our conference as he underscores the importance of passion, work ethic, and high performance standards that will inspires us all. Don’t miss this opening General Session. We cannot begin to describe in a short paragraph with mere words how Ross brings what he has to say to life on stage. You will just have to attend the opening keynote on Wednesday to get your own firsthand experience. So be prepared for the ride of your life as Ross actively engages with us and gives us a message we can easily grasp and apply.

Connie Podesta – Are you a circle, square, triangle, or squiggle?

Still the talk of conferences past, and now the future too . . . .

On Thursday we welcome back Connie Podesta who will expand on the circle, square, triangle or squiggle as we explore Leadership in a deeper way, while we laugh hard and open our brain to a new mindset. “A leader is any person who, in some way, influences another person’s thoughts, attitudes, or behaviors. Leadership is reflective in the way you decide to live your life.” Therefore, every one of us is a leader and we have choices to make every day. Join us as we listen again to this ‘ball of fire!’.

Also, did you keep your name badge from 2016? Do you remember drawing a shape on your name badge? Are you a Circle? A Square? A Triangle? Or a Squiggle? Or have you chanced since 2016? Not only will you have the opportunity to hear all new ideas from Connie but she will be giving some of you the opportunity to re*examine your leadership opportunities in a follow-up break-out session at the conclusion of Thursday’s keynote session.

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Connie will challenge us to: Defy Limited Thinking - Take Bold Action - Push Past Excuses - Move Beyond Complacency Alex Sheen – About because I said I would . . . .

Let me lead off by stating that this will be one of the most important sessions of the 2019 conference. We have put a lot of thought and time into considering how to close this conference in a practical and meaningful way. We all have places to be, planes to catch and people to see on Friday afternoon. However, we ask that you make your travel arrangements so that you can attend this final keynote on Friday from 10 to noon. Your 2019 President Joan MichaelsAguilar wants this closing session to be a practical application of everything that you are taking away from this time together.

Alex Sheen lost his father to small cell lung cancer in 2012. He was asked by the family to give his father’s eulogy. In those final resting words, he chose to speak about his father and how he treated his promises. Alex’s father was an average man, but he kept his promises. He was a man of his word.

Some of Alex’s promises include: • Walking 245 miles across the entire state of Ohio in under 10 days to fulfill a promise to the three Cleveland women who were held captive for 10 years.

• Volunteering at 52 different nonprofit organizations in a single year.

• Promising children with cancer trips to Disneyland and personally delivering 100 tickets.

• Driving through the night to deliver disaster relief aid to the victims of Hurricane Sandy.

• Giving 100% of his speaking fees to because I said I would and other charities instead of himself.

Connie Podesta

Too often we say things like “I’ll get to it” and “tomorrow.” One day there is no tomorrow. The promises we make and keep and those we choose to dishonor define us and this world.

Have you made a promise at work or to a co-worker that you have yet to keep? This will be an opportunity to implement the Promise, the Trade, the Post, the Goodbye, or the Calendar.

So mark your calendar, and make you travel plans so that you can to attend this session and then stay and attend . . . . Because you said you would. Make that commitment today to stay for the final closing session of the 2019 conference – it will be life changing.

David Cain – Recently retired Director of Finance from City of Fountain Valley, San Bernardino, Chino and Sierra Madre.

Currently Senior Advisor to the CSMFO Communications Committee and member of the 2019 Palm Springs Annual Conference Host Committee. Active as an adjunct Professor for the MPA programs at CSUN, CSULB and Cal Poly Pomona – (Mentoring, teaching and influencing the next generation).

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CSMFO MAGAZINE JULY 2018

IF YOU LIKE PIÑA COLADAS...

ESCAPE TO PALM SPRINGS!

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JANUARY 8 – 11, 2019 PALM SPRINGS, CALIFORNIA

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CSMFO MAGAZINE JULY 2018

FEATURED ARTICLE

Better Collaboration Makes For Happy Auditors

Written By Jenny Leisz and Gloria Park

Jenny Leisz, Deputy Finance Director of Financial Services, City of Tustin

Gloria Park, Managing Director and Founder, Parc Professional Services, LLC.

From police to fire, parks to parking meters, housing to commerce, and everything in between, local governments must balance flexibility with the rigidity required for political and legal compliance to successfully deliver a complex web of services.

Often, this results in walled off information, making it difficult to see the forest for the trees. Microsoft SharePoint and other online collaboration platforms can tear down those walls by encouraging and streamlining cooperation across interdependent agencies. Here in Tustin, we started using SharePoint to effectively collaborate all the audit tasks and the Provided By Client (PBC) List for the Auditors.

Microsoft SharePoint is a web-based collaborative platform that was initially sold as a highly configurable document management and storage system.

Nowadays these platforms have evolved into sophisticated business management platforms that include: • online forms and knowledgebase • automated business processes • blogs and shared workspaces • databases and embedded apps, widgets and social media • online staff directories and company calendars • news feeds and announcements

Improved Management SharePoint can be the central hub for managing all of an agency’s activities and information needs. It can be organized on a business unit level with additional pages and information at a departmental or team level. SharePoint was introduced to Tustin in 2011 by, Gloria Park of Parc Professional Services LLC and was championed by the Finance department.

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The Finance Audit site was created with a homepage dashboard listing the user’s to do list. It gets personalized to the users based on their Microsoft Office login. From there, the user can see which tasks he/she is responsible for, when it is due, and can indicate their progress and any notes for follow-up. A project manager views the tasks assigned to gage each person’s progress status. Similar to Microsoft Project, it displays a list of project tasks with a timeline, but more simplistically like Excel. SharePoint even has alerts that can be setup to inform user’s that their tasks are due.

Tustin’s audit site was split into three parts; (1) Interim fieldwork; (2) Final Fieldwork; and (3) year-end closing Journal entries. Throughout the year each part was opened up to the team and assignments were tagged to the responsible party.

This format eliminated all the hard copies and detailed listings of documents and spreadsheets that auditors would have had to piece together. Instead, now the Auditor is granted guest permission to the SharePoint site to review all the Interim fieldwork, task by task, including all the linked documents. This type of searchable access means the Auditor doesn’t have to chase files down.

This self-service approach is very cost-effective and is a real staff time saver. It reduced information requests across the department and resulted in less follow-up and wait time. What’s more, it gave greater transparency and the opportunity for staff to cross-check and better plan services.

Moreover, access to information can be restricted using a set of permissions and rules so that potentially sensitive data remains confidential.

More Opportunities for Better Planning We can all cite examples where the coordination of public services locally sometimes appears to be lacking – it’s the proverbial road being dug several times in a month by different county government departments. SharePoint can help to break down the silo mentality, fostering connections between different teams and departments. Combine this with the greater oversight achieved by senior managers and the elected officials, and you have a winning combination.

This is the PBC list of tasks for Part 1: Interim Fieldwork for the Auditors to review.

This is a detail view of a task for the senior accountant to indicate the 3 documents associated with this task. In the Audit Docs section, you can select which file(s) are associated to this task and attach them within SharePoint.

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CSMFO MAGAZINE JULY 2018

Better Collaboration Makes For Happy Auditors

Jenny Leisz is Deputy finance Director of financial Services at the City of Tustin. She has 17 years of local government accounting and management experience with a B.S. in Accountancy, Northern Illinois University. She holds an Illinois CPA Certificate No. 30587 and is a Leadership Tomorrow Graduate from the Class of 2016. She is currently enrolled in the CCMTC program and she serves as Vice-Chair with the CSMFO Orange County Chapter and CMTA Secretary.

Gloria Park is Managing Director and Founder of Parc Professional Services, LLC, a boutique web development, internet marketing and SharePoint consultancy since 2010. She received her MBA at UC Irvine’s Paul Merage School of Management as well as a Bachelor of Arts in Fine Arts at UCI. She has over 20 years of experience with web development and graphic design receiving a Top Award in OC Metro for her website work with the new naming of the Anaheim Ducks in 2007. Her extensive skills in Microsoft and Adobe products, Internet marketing, web Development and graphic design have brought tremendous success to local governments like the City of Tustin as well as countless small businesses in the private sector.

Automated business processes through the intranet are another way to improve management of local governments. A large number of existing paper and email-based processes are capable of being automated with SharePoint. So when it comes to next year’s Audit, the majority of the template is set in place and there is little to change. Just the due dates and responsible team member, to say the least. The best part is that since it is a Microsoft product, it all is integrated with Outlook, Calendars, Excel, Word, etc.

Today, Microsoft SharePoint at the City of Tustin is used beyond Finance to track Work Orders with the Parks and Recreation department, the Police utilize SharePoint in monthly report workflows and General Investigation case tracking, and the Economic Development department has embraced SharePoint with managing their Affordable Housing inventory. It can also allow cross-departmental teams to quickly be set up to tackle projects, hold virtual meetings, and resolve issues that cut cross business units.

Microsoft SharePoint: A Cost-Effective Solution Resources and funding are always under pressure in local governments and there will always be a great deal of pressure to get as much as possible out of the budget. SharePoint is included in Microsoft Office and is a very cost-effective solution. What’s more, ongoing maintenance, as well as responsibility for the intranet’s security, remains with the Microsoft licensing agreement so that potential headache as well as the extra expense, is all taken care of.

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SPONSORED ARTICLE

Where is the “Pot” of Gold?

California’s Cannabis Tax Revenue: Expectations vs. Reality

Written By Scott Johnson

Scott Johnson, MGO

Cannabis tax revenues have fallen short, much to the chagrin of state and local governments who were relying on higher revenues. The California Department of Tax and Fee Administration (“CDTFA”) reported that between January and March the State earned $60.9 million in tax revenue from California’s legal adult-use and medical cannabis industry. The $60.9 million figure does not include local tax revenue collected by cities and counties.

The breakdown of revenue was as follows: • Excise Tax: $32 million • Cultivation Tax: $1.6 million • Sales Tax: $27.3 million While $60.9 in new tax revenue may seem like a lot, the figure falls well short of the pace predicted by Governor Jerry Brown’s 2018 budget proposal. That forecast predicted up to $175 million in State cannabis tax revenues between January and June of 2018.

The relatively low level of tax revenue aligns with industry reports that cannabis sales in California have been lagging since legalization on January 1, 2018.

For example, in April, the Sacramento Bee reported that the cannabis industry generated an estimated $339 million in retail sales for the first two months of the calendar year. That is 13 percent less than state projections. The state would need $383 million in retail sales every two months for the remaining six months of this year in order to meet the budget forecast of $1.15 billion.

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Typically, cannabis sales are slower in the winter and spring months than summer, and state and local governments should expect a noticeable increase in revenue now that summer has begun. However, weather can only account for a percentage of the shortfall. There are a number of other fundamental issues limiting the cannabis industry’s growth in California. A number of obstacles have emerged that are impeding the California cannabis industry.

Delays in Licensing Preventing Business Operation California launched a new licensing system with the advent of adult-use legalization and there have been issues. The state’s multi-tiered system requires permission from the local city or county before a business can earn a license from the appropriate state authority. While MGO has helped some cities and counties through that process, others are experiencing delays in issuing permits, throwing another wrench into the already complex process.

Delays and difficulties in licensing have prevented some businesses from beginning operation and some existing businesses are operating in a legal “grey area.” Meaning that in many cases, they were legal cannabis businesses under the pre-1/1/2018 laws, but with the onset of the new licensing process, have not been able to acquire licenses to operate. In early April, the Bureau of Cannabis Control sent out nearly 1,000 cease-and-desist letters to cannabis businesses they determined were operating without licenses.

Across California, new and established cannabis businesses are waiting as they seek to operate within regulations.

Once the kinks in the licensing process are ironed out, and hundreds, if not thousands, of businesses join the regulated cannabis market, tax revenue will surely rise. continues on next page

CSMFO MAGAZINE JULY 2018

Where is the “Pot” of Gold?

High Cannabis Tax Rates Credited for Boom in Black Market

Not all California Municipalities Have Accepted the Cannabis Industry

Another unexpected obstacle is wide-ranging reports that cannabis legalization in California has actually resulted in a boost to black market operators. This seeming contradiction is attributed to the comparatively high tax rates of California cannabis. Between the 15% excise tax, the cultivation tax, sales tax, and local taxes, the tax rate of cannabis is estimated to be up to 45% in some areas. As a result, cannabis business operators must charge inflated prices for product to maintain profit margins, prices easily undercut by black market operations.

A key component of Prop 64 was the ability for cities and counties to determine how cannabis legalization laws would be enforced within local jurisdictions. Over the past year, each city and county across California has begun the process of developing local laws. A report by the OC Register in early April found a “crazy quilt of policies” across the state. Less than one in three cities in California (144 out of 482) allow any kind of cannabis industry operation, and only 18 of 58 counties allow cannabis business operations in unincorporated areas.

High tax rates incentivize illegal activity. California has a markedly higher tax rate than other states with legal adult-use cannabis markets. In addition, Colorado, Washington, and Oregon have all taken steps to reduce their initial cannabis tax rates, precisely as a response to persistent black market operators.

This patchwork mix of laws and regulations governing the cannabis industry has created a complex environment for both businesses looking to get off the ground, and potential customers, who oftentimes must look hard, or travel, to gain access to “technically” legal cannabis.

While California lawmakers rejected AB 317, legislation that would lower the effective tax rate and eliminating the cultivation tax for three years, MGO is currently consulting with local municipalities on possible adjustments to their taxes and fees to discourage black market operators. In addition, as we work with local agencies to access the industry’s compliance with local regulations and taxes, one of the most common areas of feedback we hear from industry is how difficult it is to compete while non-legal businesses are operating in direct competition within a local jurisdiction. Legal businesses are at a market disadvantage, Illegal cannabis markets rob the state and local governments of tax dollars, drive up policing and incarceration costs and pose a public safety risk to communities. It is important that the State and local agencies work together to either close down or get these illegal businesses into compliance to level the playing field.

How Will California Respond to Low Cannabis Tax Revenue?

It is important to express that the “growing pains” illustrated above are far from disastrous. Each state that has legalized cannabis has experienced issues and obstacles. There is no formula for creating a cannabis regulatory framework, and the economic, geographic, social and population factors unique to California assured that the system established here would be the first of its kind.

Another, simpler explanation, could be that the State’s budget projections were simply too optimistic for a new emerging industry. Even so, the cannabis industry may still meet, or even exceed, those projections by years end.

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California’s legal cannabis market is in its infancy, and certain difficulties are inevitable. No real judgements about revenue, reporting, or even the efficacy of tax rates can be made until the state licensing authorities, and local jurisdictions, have their regulatory systems fully in place and operational.

Scott Johnson is a partner at Macias Gini & O’Connell (MGO), a CPA and advisory firm. He leads MGO’s state and local government advisory services. Scott has over 30 years of highlevel organizational management and leadership experience. He is nationally recognized as a leader in managing city finances, investments, and budgets. Scott has been an active participant with CSMFO and is a past president (2011). Scott’s areas of expertise include fiscal and internal operations of large multibillion dollar government organizations, as well as medium sized local governments such as the cities of Santa Clara, Milpitas, San Jose, Oakland and Concord, and the County of Santa Clara.

He has served as the Assistant City Manager, Assistant City Administrator, Director of Finance, and Controller-Treasurer.

In the area of Cannabis, Scott led the effort in the City of San Jose to implement a marijuana business tax; including drafting a ballot measure, developing an outreach and training program for medical marijuana businesses; working with the police and planning departments and the City Attorney’s office on regulations and enforcement; and developing an audit program to audit compliance of the City’s medical marijuana dispensaries on state and local medical marijuana laws. In addition, Scott has been working with numerous local and state agencies on compliance issues in the cannabis industry.

What can Local Agencies do?

As local agencies consider new cannabis regulations or tweak their existing cannabis ordinances, MGO offers the following suggestions and solutions: • Proactive collaboration between regulators, industry, and the community • Outreach and education for the industry and community • Diversity in the number of cannabis businesses types • Support compliance-centric standard operating procedures • Early internal collaboration • Establish a proactive monitoring and compliance program

As a leading provider of audit and advisory services to California’s largest government entities, MGO is uniquely qualified to help organizations navigate the challenges that public sector executives and elected officials are facing.

Beyond traditional views of assurance and advisory services, we see ourselves as an extension of the client team – rolling up our sleeves, embracing challenges and implementing solutions. For more information please contact Scott Johnson.

MGO 2121 N. California Blvd. Suite 750 Walnut Creek, CA 94596 Phone: (925) 395-2818

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CSMFO MAGAZINE JULY 2018

FEATURED ARTICLE

How bargaining units rallied behind 457 Plan consolidation The Fears and the Reality: Fiduciary Oversight with Consensus.

Written By Maribel Larios

Maribel Larios, Fiduciary Experts LLC

For agencies that use multiple 457 vendors, they are now in a position to remove the overuse of proprietary products, to use the best outside mutual funds in the market, to provide a Certified Financial Planner for participants, to increase employee financial planning preparedness, and reduce hidden plan fees (such as those in expense ratios, administrative fees, and interest credit on your stable value or fixed fund). Although these fees are paid by the employee and not the agency, it is the agency who has full personal liability over these “hidden� fees .

Change . Not an easy concept to deliver without resistance especially in terms of working successfully with bargaining units and old established working relationships with vendors.

But, what if I told you that there is a world out there where bargaining units can become your biggest fan.

A sure strategy is starting a 457 plan review. Today, there are strategies to significantly reduce 457 administrative fees to put thousands of dollars back in participant pockets that would have otherwise gone to the 457 plan vendor.

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By navigating through these steps, you can help improve the collective bargaining process. Agencies that had 457 plan re-pricing saw such positive results that these groups rallied behind the agency.

Here is a quick list of strategies to dig into the dirty details of a 457 plan: 1. An employee who rolls over their 457 plan from one employer to another could result in an increase in their plan fees or different benefits, even when both employers use the same vendor. As your plan’s fiduciary agent, it is critical that you understand why.

More agencies have taken a stand against excess fees.

The improvements are significant, with vendors fighting for your business which has driven admin fees down so significantly. But don’t wait for that to happen. As your plans Fiduciary agent, it is your responsibility to assure your plans are not just competitive but compliant from a fiduciary oversight responsibility.

2. You, not your 457 plan provider, are the fiduciaries of the plan. Finance, HR, and the City Council can be PERSONALLY liable for failure to provide proper oversight and management of the fund menu, fees, and services rendered.

3. Your 457 provider(s) make a profit and therefore have inherent conflicts of interest. Per the CA Constitution, which mirrors the ERISA statute on fiduciary duty to assets, it is your duty to mitigate and document these conflicts.

Maribel Larios is the founder of Fiduciary Experts LLC and Registered Investment Advisor. Ms. Larios has been in the investment industry for over eighteen years and brings her experience from serving the large to mid-size 457-retirement plan market as an independent fiduciary for government agencies. She graduated from UCLA with a BA in Economics and completed the Executive MBA at UCI. She is recipient of the Hispanic OC 100 and honored with the Gracias Award for her community service by the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in 2007. Ms. Larios sits on the Supervisory Board for Comunidad Latina Federal Credit Union and she is a former member of the Investment Oversight Committee for the City of Costa Mesa.

4. Using more than one provider does not provide your employees more choices or “diversification”. It actually creates double the liability and fees.

5. It may be easier than you think to renegotiate 457 plan fees. Most plan contracts are so old that they may allow you to work with other providers or provide for only a 30-day notice to make a change.

6. Make plan providers compete. There are in general the same legacy plan providers that have relatively large profit margins from little to no competition, effectively protecting their higher fees 7. Another related strategy is to have your bargaining units included in the review of RFI benchmarking, creating a win for both parties.

8. Each agency is unique and can benefit from a formal review by an independent consultant that acts as their fiduciary agent. But, it is important to confirm they are free from conflicts of interest. These include hiding their fee in the stable value fund and taking a cut from what would have been potential earnings for participants, and placing products or services that pay them revenue from third parties, or commission structures.

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CSMFO MAGAZINE JULY 2018

FEATURED ARTICLE

Trending Now- June election results mirror recent local tax history Generally, Most General Tax Measures Succeed, but Special Taxes Not So Much

Written By Michael Coleman

Michael Coleman, creator of CaliforniaCityFinance .com, the California Local Government Finance Almanac

Successful measures included all 13 cannabis taxes and 5 local sales tax increases1. All 18 city majority vote measures passed except for a new 4% Utility Users Tax (UUT) on electric, gas and telecommunications in the Parlier (Fresno County).

If you had a school and local tax measures on the ballot, June was a great election. This exuberance was tempered by a road improvement tax repeal that succeeded in San Diego County.

Passing city taxes included seven cannabis business excise taxes, a general business operations tax revision in Rolling Hills Estates (Los Angeles County), a 2 percent hotel tax increase in Monrovia (Los Angeles County), five new add-on sales taxes (Transactions and Use Tax), and three UUT extensions.

In all, voters cast ballots on 165 local measures in this year’s June 5, 2018 election. Among these were 111 measures affecting local taxes, fees or charges.

Several of the ten county general tax measures did not fare so well. There were six successful county cannabis business excise taxes and San Benito County voters increased their hotel tax by 4 percent, but sales taxes failed in Lassen and Lake and Mendocino voters turned down a proposal to expend their hotel tax to private campgrounds and RV parks.

There were 59 city, county and special district fiscal measures including 30 simple majority vote measures1 and 29 special taxes requiring twothirds voter approval. Among the 30 simple majority vote measures were the multicounty bridge toll in the San Francisco Bay area, 13 cannabis business taxes, seven sales tax increases, four utility user taxes, and three hotel taxes.

Pass rates plummeted to 50% for the two-thirds vote city, county and special district special tax and bond measures (only 15 of 29 passed). Of the Special District taxes, 9 of the 18 measures passed; eight parcel taxes and one UUT in Isla Vista (Santa Barbara County). Both county special taxes failed, a ½ cent sales tax for childcare and early education and the extension of a $1 per registration vehicle tax for abandoned vehicle abatement in San Benito County. Davis voters turned down a parcel tax for streets and roads but approved the extension of a parks parcel tax. San Francisco voters turned down a tax on property rental businesses for housing and homeless services, but approved a measure with twice the rate and the proceeds used for early childhood education1.

There were 52 school measures including 12 school parcel taxes and 40 bond measures seeking a total of $3.9 billion in school construction bond financing.

Passage Rates With all mailed and provisional ballots for the June 5, 2018 election now processed, 85 of the 111 fiscal measures passed. Several measures flipped as mail ballots were counted after election night, most from fail to pass.

The eight out of ten passage rate of local non-school majority vote tax measures exceeded passage rates in prior years (24 of the 30 passed).

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Ten of eleven school parcel taxes were passed, with a $49 annual tax for Eastside Union High School District in Santa Clara falling short of the 2/3 threshold with 65.5 percent yes.1 For school bond measures, 33 out of 40 passed for a total of over $3.7 billion in local school construction bond authorizations.

Other Measures of Note • Voters in San Diego County Service Area 113 (San Pasqual) repealed a road improvement parcel tax.

• Voters in City of Portola Valley (San Mateo County) approved a five year extension of a UUT rate reduction.

Had the measure failed, the prior effective tax rate would have increased.

• Irvine voters approved a measure to require two-thirds vote of the city council to place any tax measure on the ballot.

• Three cities (Orland, Winters and Angels Camp) approved changing their elected city clerk and city treasurer positions to be appointed by their city councils.

• Richmond voters approved a ballot box budgeting measure to set aside a fixed percentage of general fund revenues for youth programs.

• Voters in the City of Santa Clara rejected a proposal to move to district elections with ranked choice voting.

• Measures to repeal term limits were turned down in National City and Pinole.

For more information: Michael Coleman 530-758-3952. coleman@muniwest.com Michael Coleman is a leading expert on California local government revenues, spending and financing. He is thecreator of CaliforniaCityFinance.com, the California Local Government Finance Almanac, an online resource of data, analyses and articles on California municipal finance and budgeting. He is the principal fiscal policy advisor both to the California Society of Municipal Finance Officers (CSMFO) and, for over fifteen years, to the League ofCalifornia Cities. Coleman is a popular presenter at graduate schools and conferences and is the author of CaliforniaCityFinance.com numerous articles and references including the California Municipal Revenue Sources Handbook, and - as co-author with Mike Multari, Ken Hampian and Bill Statler – the Guide to Local Government Finance in California published by Solano Press.

An experienced city fiscal officer, Michael previously worked for the cities of San Mateo, Milpitas, Daly City and Sacramento. He received his BA in Policy Analysis from UC Davis and his MPA from the University of Southern California, and is a graduate of the Coro Fellows Program. In February 2013, the California Society of Municipal Finance Officers honored Michael with their Distinguished Service Award for dedicated service and outstanding contribution to the municipal finance profession.

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CSMFO MAGAZINE JULY 2018

FEATURED ARTICLE

Strategic Business Planning Updated Written By Grace K. Leung and Barbara Arenado

Grace K. Leung, Assistant City Manager City of Irvine

Since 1994, the City of Irvine has been using the Strategic Business Plan (SBP) as a fiscal forecasting tool, encompassing both revenue and expenditure forecasts over a long-term horizon. The SBP provides valuable information that allows the City to make sound financial decisions, ensure fiscal responsibility, show transparency, and provide insight for future challenges.

While the first five years of the City’s SBP is provided as part of the annual budget, the SBP itself is a detailed worksheet that forecasts all of the City’s revenue accounts and expenditure line items for the next 25 years.

Barbara Arenado, Senior Management Analyst for the City of Irvine

In 2016, following years of tremendous growth in Irvine, we followed best practices and began an overhaul of the SPB, re-evaluating the forecasting model with the mindset to find the right balance of qualitative and quantitative analysis. The goal was to improve accuracy and make the SBP relevant again.

Chart 1, Scenario 1 reflects the impact of an economic downturn that resembles the Great Recession. The City’s Contingency Reserves are exhausted in FY 2022/2023, assuming no course corrections are made.

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The former SBP was deep-seeded in complex, sophisticated regression analysis from older legacy models with numerous variables linked to statistically historic relationships. For example, property tax revenue assumptions were based on over 76 data inputs while sales tax factored 54 inputs, with each factor having its own regression formula. The analysis included such multilayered data as “individuals working for and within the City” and an algorithm for each set of individuals to determine the potential sales tax each group could generate. The all-encompassing data sets were cumbersome and involved complicated and indirectly related assumptions. More importantly, it took extensive time compiling, analyzing, and inputting the information.

As part of the re-evaluation, we examined all of these variables, removed redundant data, and utilized only relevant, directly correlated indicators going forward.

Factors are now linked directly to the City’s General Plan, which include projected dwelling units, commercial and residential square footage, open space acreage, roadway and sidewalk miles, as well as other key metrics such as residential and daytime populations.

Chart 2, Scenario 2 reflects the impact of an economic downturn that resembles a 2 percent decline in revenues for three years before recovery begins. $24 million of the City’s Contingency Reserves are utilized over the forecasted period, assuming no course corrections are made.

To improve accuracy, focus began on the largest revenue sources: property, sales, and hotel tax, which comprises 76% of the City’s General Fund revenues. Instead of building data sets in the SBP, the City now partners with property and sales tax consultants to evaluate and provide long-term assumptions. These assumptions are built outside of the plan, which allows elimination of sections of the SBP that are no longer useful, yet need to be updated annually. The consultant’s proprietary sales tax software provides data by specific industry such as auto, restaurants, and general merchandise, which gives us in-depth fiscal information that would be difficult and costly for the City to compile on our own. Staff works directly with the consultant, providing anticipated growth and new business openings or closings within the City. Market and economic changes affect each area of sales tax differently; utilizing their software as a backdrop allows flexibility and opportunity to discuss anticipated trends affecting the City in order to easily make adjustments based on those discussions.

Property tax is now developed by utilizing a formulated forecasting worksheet comprised of data that accounts for the real estate landscape specific to the City. Growth factors include variables such as: Proposition 13 limits, transfers of ownership, and new construction data formulated from the General Plan. Other elements, such as Proposition 8 property tax recapture, is determined by City trends and historical analysis. Working collaboratively with consultants, applying trend analysis, and focusing on economic conditions specifically applicable to Irvine has enhanced accuracy in the forecast.

New for the FY 2018/2019 Budget, a scenario analysis section was built within the SBP to test fiscal strength and reserve levels. The two scenarios shown below provide the policymakers additional information to assess our financial conditions and prepare for the long term. Discussions around the appropriate level of reserves are more informed with this information. The enhanced SBP is the foundation to building these scenarios.

The process of updating the SBP was informative and resulted in a well-balanced, more accurate fiscal plan where the City is better able to utilize the data for decision-making and analysis. The experience itself taught us that a complete refresh and re-evaluation is necessary periodically, especially as Irvine continues to grow and develop. As our city evolves, our forecasting models must adapt and evolve as well.

Grace Leung is Assistant City Manager for the City of Irvine. She previously served as the Director of Administrative Services for Irvine from January 2016 to October 2016. Prior to Irvine, Grace served for six years as Director of Finance for the City of Sunnyvale.

Her many responsibilities included directing the development of Sunnyvale’s performance based budget and 20-year financial plan.

Grace has more than 20 years of extensive finance, management, and strategic planning experience in municipal government.

Barbara Arenado is a Senior Management Analyst for the City of Irvine overseeing special projects such as the City’s Pension Paydown Plan, Strategic Business Planning, and Budgeting Oversight. Barbara has over 20 years in the public sector.

While it was necessary to eliminate superfluous and redundant data in sales and property tax revenues forecasting, staff found that the hotel tax analysis was not detailed enough. One simple formula was utilized to determine revenue assumptions for all hotels within the City. Significant variations in hotel types, vacancy, and occupancy rates made the single formula inaccurate, especially as additional hotels came online. To better align with actual data, hotel tax is now forecasted using actual tax receipts per hotel and is adjusted for industry projected changes in daily room rates and occupancy rates by hotel type. Additionally, staff reaches out to hotels to determine fiscal constraints, such as remodels or construction delays, and includes those in the analysis. In FY 2015/2016, hotel projections had a 20% variance versus actual results. With one month remaining in the current fiscal year, anticipated hotel revenue is expected to be within 1% of the SBP’s forecast, reflecting a dramatic improvement.

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CSMFO MAGAZINE JULY 2018

INSIDE CSMFO

CSMFO Travels the Globe

Where you may find your Board of Directors or Magazine Committee members this summer

Written By Nitish Sharma Summer vacations are the happiest time for my two beautiful kids, Avani and Ishani, and my lovely wife, Yogeeta. Each year, due to our work schedule that focuses primarily on budget, year-end procedures, and preparing financial statements, we tend to take several mini vacations. This year we challenged ourselves to drive nearly two thousand miles over 5 days through the high desert. Our drive started on June 29, 2018 in Salt Lake City and took us through: •Rexberg, Idaho; •Yellowstone National Park; •Billings, Montana; •Rapid City, South Dakota; •Rock Springs, Wyoming; and •Salt Lake City where we ended on July 4, 2018.

A quotable trip highlight was when my oldest daughter, who wasn’t sure if we were on vacation yet, asked “Mom, when are we going to see an ocean with a resort?”.

As far as memorable moments, Mount Rushmore was great and gave us the chance to talk with our girls about history and when each state was added to the union.

We also enjoyed seeing the Idaho Falls in the city center, walking around an empty Brigham Young University campus, spending tGreat Salt Park in Utah, and walking around the 10-acre Temple Square in Salt Lake City. Another memorable highlight (especially for my two daughters) was seeing different animals in the Bear City, USA, drive-thru wildlife park. They included black bears, big horn sheep, arctic wolves, badgers, bobcats, buffalo, coyotes, elk, grizzly bears, mountain lions, reindeers, and many more.

Some tips we picked up included: • Buying in advance a car pass to get into Yellowstone to take advantage of the express drive in lane to avoid very long traffic lines (saved us an hour) • Use printed maps, especially in Yellowstone. Cell service is bad or non-existent • Take time to have some nice dinners. Nepali in Rapid City was a great experience • Take advantage of Salt Lake City’s free trolley system to get around Overall, the best part of the road trip for Yogeeta and I were the quality time we spent together talking about a lot of different things and continue to learn from each other. We decided to take an annual summer trip to learn about other parts of our beautiful county. We came home and celebrated Independence Day with fireworks and some home cooked meals. Hope you can put this trip on your next vacation and I am happy to give you other tips.

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Written By Robin Bertagna We CSMFOers are a hard working bunch! My philosophy used to be work hard and play hard. As I have aged, it is now work hard so you can play harder! People that know me know how much I love to plan trips with family or friends. In my opinion, having a fun, relaxing and adventurous vacation makes all the hard work worthwhile; it balances out life’s stressful times. In my City, we recently adopted the City’s budget and negotiated the last union agreement, now it’s time for some of that balance in life.

We are heading on an Alaskan adventure with wonderful friends. We travelled to Alaska previously in August, 2013. We loved it. The unspoiled natural wilderness is absolutely beautiful!

We’re leaving again this afternoon for Seattle, then onto an Alaskan cruise. Last time we were in Skagway, we took a hike to Upper Dewey Lake. It was absolutely the most beautiful forest I have ever hiked in. We’re planning to try it again, weather permitting, when we’re there. However, it will be a challenge as we aren’t in as good of shape as 5 years ago and the hike begins at sea level and goes up 3,100 feet.

My husband and I have adult children now so we often vacation with other couples rather than our kids who are busy with their own careers, lives and families. No matter what you do with your free time, live life to the fullest! Make an adventure out of each and every day! See beautiful places and laugh, a lot. Find that balance, work hard so you can play harder. I hope you’re taking time out this summer to enjoy life and experience something adventurous.

Nitish Sharma has been the Budget Manager for the City of West Sacramento since 2008 and has over 10 years of experience as a municipal finance officer in California.

Prior to the City of West Sacramento, Nitish was a Senior Auditor with a top 25 regional accounting firm, Richardson and Company, LLP. Nitish is very passionate about serving the local government, implementing the Council’s vision, and exercising financially sound judgement. He is very excited about his role as a Chapter Chair for the Sacramento Valley region to continue the vision of the “CSMFO chapter as a resource for promoting excellence in government finance.” In his spare time, Nitish enjoys spending time with his wife and 2 children, ages 5 & 6.

Robin Bertagna is the Finance/IT Director for City of Yuba City. She has been with Yuba City for almost 20 years and plans to finish out her career there. She is also a CPA with over 30 years of municipal government experience, starting first as an auditor at a CPA firm, then transitioning to Finance Director/City Treasurer at City of Gridley, before joining Yuba City’s team. Robin has been active in CSMFO serving as the Sacramento Valley Chapter Chair, Vice-Chair and as CSMFO’s appointee on the League of California Cities Public Safety Policy Committee.

continues on next page

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CSMFO MAGAZINE JULY 2018

Ernie Reyna

Carrie Corder

Margaret Moggie

Wing- See Fox

David Cain

Jennifer Wakeman

Nitish Sharma

Steve Heide

Marcus Pimentel Melissa Dixon Joan Michaels Aguilar

Scott Catlett Richard Lee

Drew Corbett

Karla Campos

James Russel- Field

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Carrie Corder - Michigan David Cain - Hawaii Drew Corbett - Disney Cruise Ernie Reyna - Niagara Falls, Canada James Russel Field - Backyard Pamela Arends- King

Jennifer Wakeman - Sun River, OR Joan Michaels Aguilar - Bermuda Karla Campos - Legoland Marcus Pimentel - Disneyworld Margaret Moggia - Spokane, WA Melissa Dixon - Newport Beach Pamela Arends King - Europe Richard Lee - Backyard Scott Catlett - Backyard Steve Heide - Hawaii Wing See Fox - New York

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CSMFO MAGAZINE JULY 2018

CSMFO Travels the Globe

Other Members’ Summer Spots

JOB OPPORTUNITIES Accounting Manager, Southgate Recreation & Park District Salary Range: $6,821 - $8,706/monthly Application Deadline: 8/21/2018

Salary Range: $63,814.40 - $83,470.40 Annually Application Deadline: 8/6/2018 Finance Director, Bob Murray and Associates Salary Range: 133,391 - 170,254 Application Deadline: 9/7/2018

Financial Analyst, Olivenhain Municipal Water District Salary Range: $29.72 - 41.61 per hour Application Deadline: 8/21/2018

County Chief Financial Officer, Ventura County Salary Range: $200,518 - $280,726 Application Deadline: Monday, August 13, 2018 at 5:00 p.m.

Accounting Manager, City of South El Monte Salary Range: $86,436 - $105,060 Application Deadline: 9-Aug-18

Business Administrator, County of Calaveras Salary Range: $71,614.40 - $87,068.80/yr.

Application Deadline: Open Until Filled

Administrative Analyst II, Contra Costa Water District Salary Range: $44.33 - $53.89 Hourly Application Deadline: 7/24/2018

Director of Finance, Koff & Associates Salary Range: $142,629.02 to $213,943.53 Application Deadline: August 1st, 2018

Accounting Technician, Jurupa Community Services District Salary Range: $4,070.02 - $4,947.13 / month Application Deadline:

Director of Finance & Treasurer, Ralph Andersen & Associates Salary Range: The annual salary range for the Director of Finance & Treasu Application Deadline: Friday, August 10, 2018

Financial Services Deputy Director, Alameda County Social Services Agency Salary Range: $101,316.80 - $123,177.60/year Application Deadline: Friday, July 27, 2018 5:00 PM Revenue Development Specialist, City of Petaluma Salary Range: $56305.60 - $68452.80 annually Application Deadline: 20-Aug-18

Accounting and Treasury Manager, Alameda County Water District Salary Range: $149,342.46 - $181,532.41 Application Deadline: Friday, August 10, 2018 at 5:00 p.m.

Finance and Accounting Manager, Petaluma Salary Range: $87630.40 - $106475.20 Application Deadline: 8/2/2018

Financial Analyst, Irvine Ranch Water District Salary Range: $6,484.00 - $8,792.00 Monthly Application Deadline:

CONTROLLER, Coachella Valley Water District Salary Range: Monthly: $9,546 - $13,240 Application Deadline: 8/3/2018

Account Technician, Sacramento Housing & Redevelopment Agency Salary Range: $40,009.00 - $51,062.00 Application Deadline: 7/27/2018

Senior Accountant/Controller, Housing Authority of the County of Santa Cruz Salary Range: 34.62 - 47.61/hr Application Deadline: First review 8/8/18

Accountant, Sacramento Housing & Redevelopment Agency Salary Range: $57,944.00 - $73,953.00 Annually Application Deadline: 7/27/2018

Manager of Accounting, Southern California Association of Gover Salary Range: $137,633.60 - $178,921.60 Application Deadline:

Sr. Accountant (payroll title: Accountant II), City of San Leandro Salary Range: $6,960 - $8,459/monthly Application Deadline: July 31, 2018 at 5:00 p.m.

Accounting Specialist I /Accounts Payable, City of Maywood Salary Range: $49,920 -$52,624 Application Deadline: July 13,2018 Financial Services Manager, South San Francisco

Management Analyst, Emeryville Salary Range: $7,375-$9,954 Application Deadline: 8/12/2018 Assistant to the Treasurer, Carlsbad

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Salary Range: $9,898 - $12,031 per month Application Deadline: Open until closed

Senior Accountant, Santa Ana Salary Range: $6,291 - $8,431 per month Application Deadline: 11-Jul-18

Budget Analyst, City of Newport Beach Salary Range: $6,392.53 - $8,990.80 Monthly Application Deadline: Open until 150 applications are received OR July 19, 2018

Manager, Financial Reporting & General Ledger, Miller Advertising Salary Range: $2,342 - $3,513 per week ($121,792 $182,688 estimated annu Application Deadline:

Finance Director, Novato Fire District Salary Range: $144,084 - $175,128 Application Deadline: Open Until Filled

Accounting Manager, City of Modesto Salary Range: $90,702.72 - $110,258.28 Annually Application Deadline: Mon. 07/09/18 5:00 PM Pacific Time

Executive Director of Finance and Management Services, Bob Murray & Associates Salary Range: $135,276-$191,112 Application Deadline: 20-Jul-18

Accountant I, City of South Lake Tahoe Salary Range: $32.13-$39.05/hr, Application Deadline:

MANAGEMENT ANALYST I/II (Budget Analyst), Santa Clara Valley Water District Salary Range: See Job Description Application Deadline: July 10, 2018 by 11:59pm

Admin Analyst II/Senior Management Analyst, City of Mountain View Salary Range: $92,133.93-108,392.81 Annually Application Deadline: Continuous with a first application review date on 6/25/2018

Finance Manager or Director, Del Mar Salary Range: 100,391.84-168,006.78 Application Deadline: First review of applications will be July 6, 2018

Manager, Treasurer-Tax Collector, County of San Diego Salary Range: $115,000.00-$135,000.00 Application Deadline:

Senior Accountant, City of Orinda Salary Range: $94,356 - $115,132 Annually Application Deadline: July 25, 2018 at 5:00 p.m.

Accounts Payable Technician III, Glendale Salary Range: $3,438.83 - $5,276.00 Monthly Application Deadline: 6/29/2018 11:59 PM Pacific

Director of Finance, Manhattan Beach Salary Range: $156,648 - $204,156 Application Deadline: Friday, August 10, 2018 @ 5:00 PM

Customer Service Representative, City of Sunnyvale Salary Range: $59,425.18 - $75,843.04 Annually Application Deadline: 2-Jul-18

Payroll Technician, City of Lincoln Salary Range: $26.31-$35.26 Hourly Application Deadline: https://www.calopps.org/lincoln/ job-18558692

Business Systems Analyst, Senior, Orange County Transportation Authority Salary Range: Min $71,968.00 ? Mid $89,273.60 ?

Max $106,579.20 per year Application Deadline: Wednesday, June 27, 2018

Accountant, City of Paramount Salary Range: $28.15 - $34.22 per hour Application Deadline: Friday, July 13, 2018, by 5:00 p.m.

Accounting Manager, Wildomar Salary Range: $73,957 - $92,363 annually Application Deadline: June 28, 2018, 5:00 p.m.

Utilities Principal Analyst, Riverside Public Utilities Salary Range: $81,540 - $109,284 Application Deadline: Open until filled. First review of apps 7/9/18

Public Works Finance Manager, Public Works ISF Salary Range: $99,340.80 - $120,744.00 Annually Application Deadline: 6/15/2018

Senior Accountant, Del Mar Salary Range: $78,945.34 - $103,583.13 Application Deadline: Continuous with the first review of applications on June 29

Management Analyst, County of San Mateo Salary Range: $7,457 - $9,322/Month Application Deadline: 21-Jun-18

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CSMFO MAGAZINE JULY 2018

Job Opportunities

Administrative Services Manager, Pacific Grove Salary Range: $102,045 - $136,760 (pending final Council approval) Application Deadline: Open until filled

Chief Financial Officer, Contra Costa County Salary Range: Annual salary range: $112,056 to $143,016 Application Deadline: Wednesday, June 20, 2018 Payroll Manager, City of Santa Rosa Salary Range: 6,992.42 - $9,233.25 Monthly Application Deadline: 6/12/2018

Management Analyst I (Finance), Alameda County Waste Management Authority Salary Range: $7,695/mo. - $9,464/mo.

Application Deadline: Friday, June 29, 2018 at 5:00 p.m.

Director of Audit Services, Avery Associates Salary Range: The salary is up to $206,044 annually, dependent on qualific Application Deadline: 20-Jun-18

Accounting Manager, Government Salary Range: $99,862.56 - $127,440.00 Anually Application Deadline: 25-Jun-18 Director of Finance, Ralph Andersen & Associates Salary Range: The annual salary range is $151,923 to $185,369.

Application Deadline: 16-Jul-18

Accounting Supervisor, HAYWARD AREA PARKS AND RECREATION DISTRICT Salary Range: $87,888 - $106,812 (additional 2% increase effective 7/1/18) Application Deadline: 11-Jun-18

Finance Director, Bob Murray and Associates Salary Range: 115,000 - 123,000 Application Deadline: 7/16/2018

Finance Director, City of Seaside Salary Range: $156,060 Annually Application Deadline: Priority Screening, June 17th

Deputy Finance Director, Ralph Andersen & Associates Salary Range: The annual salary range is $107,195 to $130,296.

Application Deadline: Open Until Filled

Director of Finance and Budget, City of Yakima Salary Range: $104,561.60 - $133,452.80 Annually plus benefits Application Deadline: Open until filled - Priority screening by 6/18/18

PROJECT MANAGER (Finance Department), Spin Recruitment Advertising Salary Range: $135,143 - $165,936 Annually Application Deadline: 15-Jun-18

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR / RATEPAYER ADVOCATE, CITY OF LOS ANGELES OFFICE OF THE ACCOUN Salary Range: $199,758 TO $292.069 Application Deadline: MONDAY, JUNE 25, 2018 @ 4:00 P.M.

Payroll Accountant, City of Glendora Salary Range: $4,668.00-$5,674.00 Monthly Application Deadline: June 15, 2018 at 4:00 p.m.

Community Choice Energy Accounting Manager, Coachella Valley Association of Governments Salary Range: Starting - $80,443 Application Deadline: June 1 2018

Accounting Supervisor, City of Glendora Salary Range: $70,833.00-$86,098.00 Annually Application Deadline: June 21, 2018 at 4:00 p.m.

Senior Accountant, Vallejo Salary Range: 71,498.13-86,906.25 Application Deadline: 4-Jun-18

Senior Accounting Technician, Glendora Salary Range: $3,699.00-$4,497.00/monthly Application Deadline: June 21, 2018 at 4:00 p.m.

Accountant, Vallejo Salary Range: 61,648.60-74,648.60 Application Deadline: 6/1/2018

Accountant, San Marcos Salary Range: $61,911.32 - $80,780.22 Annually Application Deadline: 6/26/2018

Finance Manager, City of Murrieta Salary Range: $97,341 - $118,319 Annually Application Deadline: 5:00 p.m. (PDT) on June 11, 2018

Payroll Manager, Santa Ana Salary Range: $8,798 - $10,696 per month Application Deadline: 17-Jun-18 Accounting Manager, City of Lodi Salary Range: 95,937 - 116,612 Application Deadline: Open Until Filled

Budget Manager, Milpitas Salary Range: $96,897 ? $127,545 Annually Application Deadline: Monday, June 11, 2018 54

Financial Analyst (Accountant), City of Visalia Salary Range: $5,933 - $7,459 Monthly Application Deadline: 11-Jun-18

Accountant, SACOG Salary Range: $6199 - $7535 Application Deadline: 5/25/2018

Finance and Treasury Manager, Santa Barbara Salary Range: $126,059 - $153,226 Annually Application Deadline: Open until filled. Apply Friday, June 15, 2018 for priority

Finance Manager, Central Contra Costa Sanitary District Salary Range: $12,243.66 - $14,882.26 plus excellent benefits Application Deadline: 1-Jun-18

Principal Procurement and Contract Administrator, Southern California Regional Rail Authority Salary Range: $86,894.00 - $135,763.00 Annually Application Deadline: Continuous

Revenue Manager, City of Lodi Salary Range: 91,141 - 110,783 Application Deadline: Thursday, May 31, 2018 5:30 p.m.

Finance Manager, City of Saratoga Salary Range: $124,153 to $150,883 effective July 1, 2018 Application Deadline: Open until filled

Revenue Analyst, Glendale Salary Range: $4,766.42 - $6,933.50 Monthly Application Deadline: Apply today! Filing period ends on Friday, May 18, 2018

Finance Director, City of Davis Salary Range: $10,134.90 - $12,319.04 Monthly Application Deadline: 6/20/2018

Budget Associate, Glendale Salary Range: $3,758.58 - $5,766.25 Monthly Application Deadline: Apply today! Filing period ends on Friday, May 18, 2018

Accountant, Helix Water District Salary Range: $67,356 - $85,968/annually Application Deadline: May 31, 2018 at 5:00 P.M.

Accountant II, San Leandro Salary Range: $6,757.00-8,213.00 per month Application Deadline: 5:00 P.M., Friday, June 2, 2017

Accounting Supervisor, Orange County Sanitation District Salary Range: 113713.6 Application Deadline: 23-May-18

Senior Accountant, Milpitas Salary Range: $86,787 - $114,236 Application Deadline: 26-Jul-15

Senior Analyst, Department of Finance-Purchasing, City of San Jose Salary Range: $85,529.60-$104,208.00 Application Deadline: 6/3/2018 at 11:59pm

Accountant I II, City of Perris Salary Range: $30.27 Per Hour Application Deadline: 5-May-16

Program Manager-Purchasing, San Jose Salary Range: $93,204-$114,753 Application Deadline: 6/3/2018 at 11:59pm

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CSMFO MAGAZINE JULY 2018