We're just about at the end of the current City Council's tenure. On Dec. 8, this Council will hold its last regular meeting, and two days later, it will hold an inauguration meeting, when Todd Gloria will be sworn in as the City's next mayor and five San Diegans will be sworn in as new council members representing Districts 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9. More on those meetings later.

Today we'll focus on the last committee meeting of 2020 -- a special Audit Committee meeting ("special" simply because it was recently added to the legislative calendar).

If you'd like more detail on anything summarized here, click the agenda, then click on the item. Over on the right side of the page, you'll see links to a staff report and other pieces of supporting material.

Audit Committee -- Wednesday, Dec. 2

The special Audit Committee meeting, chaired by Councilmember Scott Sherman, begins at 9 a.m. The agenda includes two discussion items and one information item:

• Performance Audit of the City’s Strategic Human Capital Management Part II – Employee Performance: The City Auditor's office is in the midst of releasing a series of audits on issues surrounding the City's workforce. Part I of the performance audit of the City's strategic human capital management was released back in April. On Wednesday, the Auditor's staff will present Part II, which includes the following four findings, along with 11 recommendations for addressing them:
  • The City should ensure all employees receive required performance evaluations to recognize and reward high performers as well as identify and address poor performance.
  • The City utilizes multiple ways to recognize and reward commendable performance among employees, but utilization of the Rewards and Recognition program varies widely across departments and its effect on employee satisfaction and retention is unclear.
  • HR should strengthen its abilities to more strategically monitor aggregated discipline trends and issues within the City’s workforce.
  • Opportunities exist for the City to reform some elements of its disciplinary processes and discipline-related training for City supervisors.

• Performance Audit of the Purchasing and Contracting Department’s Small Local Business Enterprise Program: For its new performance audit of the Purchasing and Contracting Department’s Small Local Business Enterprise (SLBE) program, the Auditor's office set out to determine whether or not the program is achieving the economic benefits described in policy, if the cost of contracting with SLBEs is captured and weighed against the economic benefits, and if the annual reports are an accurate and complete representation of program objectives and results. The report made the following three findings, along with 12 recommendations to address them:
  • The program’s performance has been stagnant over time and its benefits primarily go to a handful of certified small, local businesses.
  • The current implementation of the program potentially limits the dollars awarded to SLBEs.
  • The program’s annual reports to the City Council do not provide sufficient information for the Council to judge its efficacy.

• City Auditor’s Monthly Activity Report: This item, on the agenda once a month, covers the Auditor's team's activities in the month of October, including any audit reports issued, the status of current audit projects, and planned audits that have not yet started. 

Anyone can participate in this virtual meeting and make comments by dialing 619-541-6310 and entering the access code 877861 followed by # when the item you're interested in comes up (full call-in instructions). Watch the meeting on cable TV channel 24 or AT&T channel 99, or stream it online.

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