South St. Louis County News

St. Louis Call Newspapers

South St. Louis County News

St. Louis Call Newspapers

South St. Louis County News

St. Louis Call Newspapers

Board eyes measure to add city collector to finance panel

To serve, citizen members must be ‘financially literate’

An ordinance expanding the membership of the Sunset Hills Finance Committee to include the city collector was set to be considered this week by the Board of Aldermen.

The Board of Aldermen was slated to meet Tuesday night — after the Call went to press.

The Finance Committee voted last week to recommend to the Board of Aldermen that the panel’s membership be expanded to include the city collector.

The five-member Finance Committee currently is comprised of two aldermen and three residents. Members are recommending the committee be comprised of two aldermen, the city collector and three residents.

The city’s Finance Committee voted 4-0 last week to recommend aldermen consider adding the city collector to the panel’s membership.

Finance Committee member Mike Sawicki, a former Ward 1 alderman who was elected city collector last month, was absent from the April 30 meeting.

The motion to add the city collector to the Finance Committee was made by Ward 4 Alderman Art Havener, who serves as committee chairman, and seconded by Ward 4 Alderman Pat Fribis, who serves on the panel.

During the Finance Committee meeting, Mayor Bill Nolan said having the city collector serve on the panel makes sense from a financial standpoint and also will increase transparency.

“… The collector’s participation in the Finance Committee, from my perspective, is a matter of transparency, OK, and their responsibility is to report what’s going on when it comes to collecting revenue — part of their title. But why wouldn’t they sit on Finance Committee? …,” Nolan said.

Havener’s motion also included adding to the city collector’s duties and redefining the qualifications for the citizen members of the Finance Committee.

The city collector currently is required to file an annual report with the Board of Aldermen in February.

As proposed, the city collector also would be required to “report monthly the uncollected business license and other revenue sources.”

For citizen members of the Finance Committee, the current ordinance states, “One citizen member shall be an accountant and one citizen member shall have experience in accounting.”

The proposed ordinance states the three citizen members, as a group, should possess the combined skill set to be regarded as “financially literate” as determined by the following attributes:

• An understanding of generally accepted accounting principles and financial statements.

• Experience in preparing, auditing, analyzing or evaluating financial statements.

• An understanding of internal controls and procedures for financial reporting.

• A basic understanding of investments.

In addition, the proposed ordinance stipulates to qualify as “financially literate,” a person must have acquired one or more of the following:

• Education and experience as a financial and/or accounting officer, comptroller, certified public accountant, auditor or other related experience.

• Supervisory experience as a principal financial, accounting, auditing or other related function.

The proposed ordinance also stipulates that a quorum of the Finance Committee “shall consist of four members, two of which shall be elected officials.”

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