Agenda Packets - 1997/10/06 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Item No. Staff Report No. C7'• o�oZ3L Meeting Date: October 6, 1997 Type of Business: WK WK: Work Session;PH:Public Hearing; CA:Consent Agenda; CB: Council Business City of Mounds View Staff Report To: Honorable Mayor and members of the City Council From: Bruce A. Kessel, Finance Director Item Title/Subject: Selection of accounting firm to perform financial audits for the years ending December 31, 1997, 1998, and 1999 Date of Report: September 29, 1997 In the past, the City has entered into three year contracts with an accounting firm to perform an independent audit in accordance with state statutes. For the last twelve years, the firm that was used was Tauges Redpath& Co, Ltd. Our contract with them expired with the completion of the 1996 audit. I prepared a request for proposals in accordance with standards set forth by the Government Finance Officers Association and mailed the information to eleven firms. In addition, I placed a legal advertisement to inform any other interested firms that we would be considering proposals. It should be noted that the services requested are considered to be professional services and as • such, do not require competitive bids nor does the contract for services need to be awarded to the lowest bidder. The proposal indicated that the proposals would be evaluated based upon the qualifications of the firm and individuals assigned to the engagement,the responsiveness to the request for proposals as well as price. Bids were requested for three years;prices were not to exceed maximums which allow the City to cancel the contract at the end of any year with no penalty. The proposals were to be presented based upon two options: 1) The firm selected would perform all the schedules and would prepare the required annual report; and 2) City staff would prepare most schedules and would prepare the required annual report. Five firms submitted proposals. The firms range in size from one office firms with twelve professional staff to regional firms with numerous offices and 500 professional staff. One firm performs audits for 5 cities and several perform audits for more than 50 cities; the size of the cities varies from populations of 100 to 50,000+. Estimated hours for completing the engagement ranged from 165 hours to 240 hours under the alternative bid for 1998 at average hourly rates ranging from $57.92 to $74.59. I used five equally weighted factors to evaluate the proposals: the firm, the staff assigned, similar clients, the responsiveness of the proposal, and price. For price, I had informed the firms that had contacted me that I would be using the option where the City perform some of the schedules and the required report. Since the proposals were for three years, I also used the second year of the proposal for the evaluation. Based upon this evaluation with 100 points