Regular Finance Committee Meeting Mon, Nov 10, 2025 · Finance Committee https://santafeminutes.space/meeting/287 == Executive Summary == The Finance Committee met on November 10th with all five councilors present (one joining remotely via Zoom). The meeting opened with a change to the agenda: a legislative priorities resolution was pulled from consideration and will instead be introduced at Wednesday's governing body meeting before returning to the Finance Committee on December 8th. A highlight of the meeting was the recognition of Patrick Lucero of the Finance Department, who received a Certificate of Appreciation for over 30 years of service. Lucero was praised for leading the city's transition to the Munis financial system, establishing strong year-end and month-end close processes, and his upcoming role leading a new vendor management initiative. Multiple councilors spoke warmly about his professionalism and community involvement. The committee also received a presentation from Baker Tilly (formerly Moss Adams) on their internal audit of the city's month-end and year-end financial close processes. Auditors found the overall process to be sound and low-risk, identifying three minor findings: a lack of written policies and procedures, incomplete sign-off documentation on a couple of reconciliations, and missing documentation for a disaster recovery exercise. The Finance team has committed to addressing all three items. The next Finance Committee meeting is scheduled for December 8th. == Key Decisions == - Legislative priorities resolution (Item R) removed from tonight's agenda; to be introduced at Wednesday's governing body meeting and return to Finance Committee on December 8th - Agenda approved as amended (5-0) - Consent agenda approved (5-0) - Internal audit report on month-end/year-end close processes approved to move forward to the full governing body == Motions & Votes == - Approve agenda as amended (removing legislative priorities resolution Item R) — Passed 5-0 - Approve consent agenda — Passed 5-0 == Public Comment == No public comment period == Topics == - Staff Recognition Patrick Lucero - Month-End Year-End Close Audit - Audit Findings Documentation - Agenda Approval Amendment - Legislative Priorities Resolution - Consent Agenda Approval - Munis System Implementation - Vendor Management Improvement - Disaster Recovery Plan - Baker Tilly Internal Audit Firm - Audit Committee Review Process == Full Transcript == Madam Chair, Councilor Romero, we are live. Thank you. At 5:04, I'm calling to order the Finance Committee for today, November 10th. If we could get a roll call, please. Director Oster: Certainly, Madam Chair. Councilor Cassid here. Councilor Lindell. Councilor Faulner. Councilor Lee Garcia is on Zoom, I believe. Have we promoted him? Oh, there he is. Councilor Lee Garcia: I'm here. Chair: Great. Chair Romero: I'm here. Madam Chair, you have a quorum. Okay. We are on to approval of the agenda. I believe there's an item that we need to take off because it hasn't been introduced yet at the governing body meeting. Director Oster, what letter was that? Director Oster: Madam Chair, it is item R, which is the legislative priorities resolution, and that will be coming to Finance on December 8th. Right. Okay. And so we just need to remove that from tonight's agenda. Director Oster: Right. And it'll be introduced Wednesday night and then it'll make its way through committee. So are there any other changes to the agenda this evening? Director Oster: No, Madam Chair. Is there a motion? Councilor: Move as amended. Second. We have a motion and a second to approve the agenda as amended. And we'll have to do a roll call because we have a councilor on Zoom. Councilor Cassid? Councilor Cassid: Yes. Councilor Lindell? Councilor Lindell: Yes. Councilor Faulner? Councilor Faulner: Yes. Councilor Lee Garcia? Councilor Lee Garcia: Yes. Chair Romero? Chair Romero: Yes. Motion passes. Thank you. All right. Next is the consent agenda. I do not believe anything has been pulled. Director Oster: That is correct, Madam Chair. Is there anything the committee is interested in, or is there a motion? Councilor: Move. Second. A motion and a second to approve the consent agenda. Again, we need a roll call, please. Director Oster: Madam Chair, Councilor Cassid? Councilor Cassid: Yes. Councilor Lindell? Councilor Lindell: Yes. Councilor Faulner? Councilor Faulner: Yes. Councilor Lee Garcia? Councilor Lee Garcia: Yes. Chair Romero? Chair Romero: Yes. Motion passes. Terrific. All right. Now we are on to presentations. We have two this evening. Pretty light agenda actually. Our first item on presentations, I'll go to you, Director Oster. I believe we're going to do staff recognition. Director Oster: Good evening, Madam Chair, members of the Finance Committee. It is my pleasure tonight to recognize Patrick Lucero of the Finance Department. I am really excited to have Patrick here tonight and he has some guests that have joined him as well, his wife and his daughter. Welcome. We're so glad to have you. Patrick has been with the city for quite a while. He has been here since before I joined the team. Patrick is a graduate of the College of Santa Fe and the University of New Mexico. He holds concentrations in accounting and management information systems. Patrick's career began in 1990 with Marriott Hotels as a controller and IT specialist, followed by key leadership roles at the Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy, and Pottery Barn at their corporate offices in San Francisco and Albuquerque as a Finance and IT manager. Patrick's expertise later extended to the University of California, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and the Department of Defense, where he served as a Finance and IT project manager. He also contributed significantly to Homeland Security and FEMA as a Finance Bureau manager. In state government, Patrick held Finance and IT project management positions with the New Mexico Supreme Court, the Department of Finance and Administration, the Taxation and Revenue Department, the Department of Cultural Affairs, the Higher Education Department, and the General Services Department. Currently, Patrick serves the City of Santa Fe and the Finance Department as a project manager, having also contributed to the Police Department as a DWI stop program manager, the Parks and Recreation Department as a soccer and basketball coaching coordinator, and the Information Technology and Telecommunications Department as a project manager. Beyond his professional career, Patrick is passionate about youth development and athletics. He has coached tennis, soccer, basketball, cross country, and track at St. Michael's High School, Santa Fe Public Schools, and Santa Fe Prep, and volunteered with the Girls and Boys Club of Santa Fe. Patrick has been happily married to Maria Lucero for over 32 wonderful years. Congratulations. Together they have three adult children: Sonia, Lauren, and Jared. Sonia is here with us tonight. Two grandchildren, Isaiah and Jaden, and three beloved cats: PJ, Picasso, and Billy the Kid. [laughter] Patrick has most enjoyed his employment with the City of Santa Fe and would like to graciously thank the governing body, city council, department leadership, and most especially the dynamic Finance team for all their support, shared knowledge, and collaborative efforts. In addition to Patrick's bio, I wanted to share a little bit about my personal experience working with Patrick. The year-end close is something we've talked a lot about. Month-end and year-end close has come up a lot throughout our journey over the last couple of years, and Patrick has been really instrumental in helping us implement a year-end close process in Munis. It just keeps getting better and better. Just last week, we completed the FY25 year-end close process in Munis. It was our smoothest close ever. We always find something new that we learn through the process, and Patrick guides us through that with a very calm demeanor. He really rolls with whatever comes up, which I really appreciate, and keeps calm and just continues to guide the team through that. Prior to the time I arrived at the city, Patrick was also instrumental in the implementation of Munis, which has really been a game changer for the city in terms of modernization and technology. In addition to that, Patrick recently has taken on leading our efforts to improve vendor management. He has a new position that you all approved as part of this year's budget. We have just made a selection on that position. We're hoping to have that person on board in December to help us build out a more robust process for vendor management that will help our business partners do business with the city more easily and also make sure that their information is safe and secure and we're doing appropriate validation around changes to vendor information in our system. With that, I'd like to invite Patrick up. I'd like to thank Emily Oster. It has been a pleasure working with her. I'd like to thank department heads. I'd like to thank you, the governing body, for your support, city council, and I'd like to thank my fellow colleagues. They've been great. They've been amazing. Just the teamwork and the culture that has been bestowed in the entire city, and I really greatly appreciate your support. I'm deeply honored. Thank you. Chair: Thank you, Patrick, and it is my pleasure to present you with this certificate of appreciation, which says the following: "Award is given to Patrick A. Lucero in appreciation for performance, service, and dedication to the City of Santa Fe Finance Department." Thank you so much, Patrick, and congratulations. And thank you, Director Oster, and thank you, Patrick, for all the work you've done. It sounds like you're the right man for the job on vendor management given all the experience you have that Director Oster was just providing us. So I just want to really say thank you, and thank you to your family, who I know we all need as support. So I know how crucial they are in all the work that you're able to do here at the city. I think we have other councilors. Councilor Faulner, then Councilor Lindell, Councilor Cassid. We'll just go down the row. So congrats. Councilor Faulner: Okay, Patrick, I'm super happy that you are an alumnus from the College of Santa Fe, as am I. I just appreciate anytime you see someone who goes above and beyond. I think it's important we recognize them. So I just want to say thank you for everything you've done and continue the great work. Councilor Lindell: Well, I always like seeing you and the family around town at all the events and having a good time. I think that it's always special to see all of you. Thank you for the work. That goes without saying, but thank you for the way that you're in the community as a family and setting a terrific example for all of us. I really appreciate it. Councilor Cassid: Thank you so much, Madam Chair, and thank you, Patrick. I echo Councilor Lindell's sentiments that it's always so wonderful to see you and your family around. Really do appreciate it. And thank you so much for all the work. We hear about these important tasks that need to happen. We know how crucial they are, and then really understanding the individuals that are responsible for the improvements that we've seen. We know that this has been such a heavy lift. Anybody who has, which is a lot of the city, their finger on any part of the audit process, the closing process—I know it's been a lot—but really appreciate the work that you've done in getting us to where we are. I know it was not easy for any of you. I always just want to appreciate you. You always have such a calm demeanor. I always appreciate that. You're always so nice and calm every time I see you. I really appreciate that. We need that sometimes. So thank you for that as well. Councilor Lee Garcia: Yeah, I'll say something. Hi there. Can you guys hear me? Chair: Yes, we can. You're all good. Councilor Lee Garcia: Yeah. And I also want to extend my thank yous and congratulations for the work that you guys are all doing from the director, Emily, and now Patrick. I think one of the things that's consistent in the year-end closes and monthly closes—it's really every month—and so I think that's been a great benefit to our process and procedures and getting the month-end closed and then the year-end closed. So kudos to you and your team and thank you all for your hard work. Chair: Thank you. Thank you, Councilor. Yes, I echo the monthly closes and the year-end close have been game-changing for us and really appreciate that lift. So thank you. Congratulations. I agree that it's always a pleasure to see you. You're always very pleasant whenever I see you in the hall coming and going from the Finance Department. So I know that goes a long way. So thank you. Okay, we are going to go on now to our second presentation, which is the month-end close. We had an internal audit of this process. As has been pointed out, we've been doing it now for a few years—two, three, I think. We've had an outside group take a look at what we're doing and how we're doing it. And we now have a report to help us understand how that process is going. So, Director Oster, I'm going to turn this over to you. Maybe you can introduce our guest on Zoom and give us a little intro. Director Oster: Certainly, Madam Chair. Thank you so much for the opportunity. On Zoom with us this evening, we have Andrew Kumlis of Baker Tilly, which is the firm that is doing our internal audit. They previously went by the name Moss Adams, and over the summer they merged with Baker Tilly. So their new name is Baker Tilly. As far as the internal audit, I wanted to do a little bit of context before I turn it over to Andrew to take us through the details and the specifics of the report, which is in the packet on Civic Plus and in your board packet as well. So this project was an internal audit project. It is different from the external audit. The external audit focuses on three main areas. One: are the financial statements materially correct and fairly presented in accordance with government accounting standards. The second area that they look at is internal controls in the external audit. And the third area is compliance with federal grant requirements. Now an internal audit has a different focus. In this particular case, it was focused on the month-end and year-end close process. That does get looked at as part of the external audit, but within the lens of those three other areas that I mentioned: the financial statements, internal controls, and federal compliance. But an internal audit has a different focus than an external audit. It's more focused on processes and policies and procedures. One thing that I wanted to note with regard to the month-end and year-end close audit is that we worked very collaboratively with Baker Tilly and really appreciated the opportunity to go back and forth. I think the recommendations and the observations from the report are fair and I think they're accurate. One thing that I really take away from the report is that Baker Tilly looked at our process that we're using for month-end and year-end close and we were able to talk them through what we do and show them what we do, but we are not yet at the point where we've developed written documentation for those processes. So you'll see that come up as one of the recommendations that Andrew will take you through. I agree with that. I think we need to invest time and energy into documenting the process. And I am reassured that Baker Tilly, through their evaluation, didn't have major concerns or issues with the process itself as we described it. The main issue that came up was documentation. The other thing that I wanted to note quickly before we dive into the detail of the report: in one of the findings there is mention of a disaster recovery plan and it talks about how we were unable to produce documentation of a tabletop exercise related to disaster recovery. I just wanted to clarify that that is in the context of a technology-related disaster. So if we had a situation where we couldn't access our Munis system or our Kronos timekeeping system, that's what that finding is about—business continuity for technology. That would be different from a tabletop exercise for something like a wildfire evacuation or something like that. Those are a couple of my observations on the report. I really appreciated, as I said, the opportunity to work with Andrew and the team at Baker Tilly on this project. So with that, I'll turn it over to Andrew to dive into the specifics. **Andrew Camela:** All right. Thanks, Emily. Can you all hear me? **Audience:** Yes, we can. Thanks. Thanks for being here tonight. **Andrew Camela:** My pleasure. Thanks for the intro, Emily. My name is Andrew Camela, senior manager here at Baker Tilly. Great timing with the recognition of Patrick. Obviously within our report, his efforts and the rest of the finance team's efforts are evident with the lack of findings in our report. Let me go ahead and share my screen so we can walk through this executive summary together. So as Emily mentioned, this was an internal audit on the month-end and year-end close processes. We looked at key controls within those processes, looked for areas where we could recommend improvements, and anywhere we could enhance the overall integrity and reliability of the city's financial closing procedures. As Emily mentioned, and as you all are aware, the city has made great strides in this area over the past couple of years. That was evidenced in our report and in our testing. You'll see throughout our report the findings mostly pertain to documentation as Emily alluded to. For the most part, the actual processes that we observed—we didn't identify any issues with those. It's more just documenting them so when folks happen to retire or leave their relationship with the city, the next folks that come in can continue to keep this process moving forward. Let's jump down into those findings. The first one that Emily mentioned is the lack of policies and procedures. The city has not developed these written policies and procedures yet for the month-end and year-end processes. But as I mentioned, the actual processes are in place. It's just a matter of documenting them via policies and procedures. For number two: lack of formal review process and documentation. There were only two items that we reviewed during our testing that did not have formal documentation of a manager or supervisor review. We discussed those with Emily and team and they concurred with them. I think we had about ten to twelve different reconciliations or reports that we looked at, and these were the only two that we saw that didn't have a formal signature, formal written approval, email approval—anything to document that the manager or supervisor reviewed the preparer's work. And then the last finding, which Emily also alluded to, pertains to that missing documentation for that tabletop exercise. Overall, in the grand scheme of things, this is a very low risk. It sounds like that tabletop exercise did happen. There just wasn't documentation to show that it did happen and that the review took place during that disaster recovery testing. Some commendations here: Emily and team were very communicative with us, very great to work with, and also demonstrated a willingness to change. We appreciate their efforts in providing the documents required to help us provide a comprehensive review of this area. With that, I am happy to take any questions or comments. Thank you for going over the executive summary with us. **Chair:** I do think this is overall very good news on a new process. We've just started doing this. It has been absolutely critical to getting the audits in on time. It's critical to getting accurate financial statements. So the fact that the process—what we're doing—has nothing that's been flagged here as being left out or being inappropriate in some way. I think we should take a victory lap on that. And then as always, there are things that we can improve on, and you have given us sort of the road map of what needs to get done as we continue to do this process. I really appreciate the fact that we did an internal audit on this, especially while it's new and before habits get ingrained, so we have somebody look at it and make sure that we're doing it right. I really appreciate the work and I appreciate this audit. The audit committee also reviewed these findings. Am I correct on that? **Staff:** Yes, Madam Chair. At their meeting on October 23rd, the report was presented to the audit committee and they recommended some minor changes, clarifications in wording, and then recommended that it move forward to the finance committee. **Chair:** Okay. And under our ordinance, I believe these internal audits are to be reviewed by the finance committee after the audit committee, and then we are taking an extra step of presenting this Wednesday night at the governing body meeting as well, just so everybody has the same information. Correct? **Staff:** Yes, that is correct. **Chair:** Okay, terrific. So finance committee, you'll hear this again. Sorry about that. Questions, comments, thoughts? Councilor Lee Garcia, I don't know if your hand is up. Doesn't have to be. Just checking on you. Okay, you're good. All right. Well, again, thank you for the work. I think this was an important review and I appreciate what you've done to guide us in how we can continue to make this a great process. So thank you. **Andrew Camela:** My pleasure. **Chair:** All right, with that we will move on. We are now going to matters from staff. **Staff:** Madam Chair, I do not have any matters tonight. **Chair:** Okay. Matters from the committee. Councilor Falner. **Councilor Falner:** Toy drive. Toy drive. Toy drive. Toy drive. Toy drive and La Pasada. At first I thought you said Tory Drive. Toy drive. Okay, got it. **Chair:** All right. Matters from the chair. Our next meeting is Monday, December 8th. And with that we are adjourned. Thanks everyone.