Dear Neighbors:
Here’s a link to the agenda for the November 9. 2016 Takoma Park City Council Meeting: https://takomaparkmd.gov/meeting_agendas/city-council-meeting-agenda-wednesday-november-9-2016/. There will be no votes in this meeting. It’s focused on municipal financing issues, specifically the City’s annual Financial Audit, the Police Employees Retirement Plan, and options for bonding.
First, a brief reminder that today (Monday, November 7) is the deadline for residents to submit comments on the proposed Parking Management Study recommendations – you can find the input form in this link: https://takomaparkmd.gov/initiatives/project-directory/parking-study/. In addition, I would note that my usual second Tuesday and Fourth Thursday of the month office hours coincide with Election Day and Thanksgiving Day. This means I won’t be holding office hours either day in November. If you’d like to meet with me, please be in touch directly (peterk@takomaparkmd.gov). You may also find me on Election Day outside Takoma Park Elementary School where I’ll be working the polls.
Takoma Park is required under State law and City Charter to have an annual independent audit of our basic financial statements. We’ll have a presentation of the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report from City staff and our auditor (the accounting firm CohnReznick, LLC), which of course used Generally Accepted Accounting Principles to conduct its review. There is lots of very detailed information in the report, and I encourage interested residents to take a look at least at the executive summary if you don’t want to wade in more deeply. I’m pleased that CohnReznick did not identify any deficiencies in the internal control of City finances that they considered to be material weaknesses, nor did they disclose any instances of noncompliance or other matters that are required to be reported.
Based on this report, I believe that the City is doing a good job of managing its finances, especially in the short-term. I would like more information on longer term areas like our equipment replacement reserve and other reserve funds, plus the Police pension fund and the impact of potential additional borrowing through bonding. I look forward to discussing those matters in the meeting. Again, we’ll have separate discussions on those last two topics, so I think all three agenda items are linked, and the relevant links are grouped below, for those who do want to go through them.
Financial Audit. https://documents.takomaparkmd.gov/government/city-council/agendas/2016/council-20161109-1.pdf
Police Employees Retirement Plan. https://documents.takomaparkmd.gov/government/city-council/agendas/2016/council-20161109-2.pdf
Options for Bonding. https://documents.takomaparkmd.gov/government/city-council/agendas/2016/council-20161109-3.pdf
Please let me know if you have any comments or questions about this agenda or other local matters.
Peter Kovar, Takoma Park City Council, Ward One
240-319-6281