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City Council Regular Meeting Minutes June 26, 2018 Page 4 1 Ms. Moeller reviewed the Communication with Those Charged with Governance required 2 communications and indicated no change in accounting policies, no difficulties encountered in 3 performing the audit, as well as no disagreements with management. She noted that there will be 4 a change in accounting policy for 2018 with a GASB 75 statement that needs to be implemented 5 in 2018 for OPEB. She reviewed some upcoming accounting policy changes effective in 2020, 6 including a GASB 87 with regard to leases. 7 8 Mayor Faust asked Ms. Moeller to explain for the viewing audience what the acronym GASB 9 stands for. Ms. Moeller explained it stands for Government Accounting Standards Board, which 10 establishes the standards the City has to follow in order to do its financial statements. 11 12 Councilmember Stille asked Ms. Moeller if she anticipated that the new GASB rules will cause 13 the City to have any findings. He noted there had been times in the past where there have been 14 findings due to the small size of the City and its staffing. Ms. Moeller stated that she did not 15 believe the new GASB requirements will cause any findings for the City. 16 17 Councilmember Stille stated that the Council hires Redpath and Ms. Moeller to conduct the audit 18 and establish the integrity of the City’s numbers, which translates into the City getting a bond 19 rating every year. 20 21 Mayor Faust stated that he wanted to emphasize to the residents that the Council hired Ms. 22 Moeller and Redpath, not the Finance Director, to conduct the audit. He gave a shout out to the 23 Finance Director because for many years there had been an issue with internal control as part of 24 the audit findings because there weren’t segregated duties due to their small staff size. He stated 25 for the last two audit cycles, that has been addressed and segregated and no findings were noted. 26 27 Motion by Councilmember Stille, seconded by Councilmember Gray, to approve the 2017 audit. 28 29 Motion carried 4-0. 30 31 B. Resolution 18-051; a Resolution Ratifying the Pension Benefits for the St. Anthony 32 Village Firefighters Relief Association. Mark Casey, City Manager, presenting. 33 34 City Manager Casey reviewed the resolution with the Council and request of the St. Anthony 35 Fire Relief Association (SAFRA) for approval of an increase in pension benefit level from 36 $3,300 to $3,500. Mr. Casey stated staff has reviewed the SAFRA’s model that calculates 37 funding levels using escalating benefit levels, noting this policy has been in practice for several 38 years and uses the State’s computation of pension liability and therefore a conservative practice 39 for determining benefit level increases. Mr. Casey noted the proposed increase reduces the 40 funding level as of the beginning of the year from 123% to 116% and explained a benefit level of 41 $3,500 still yields a healthy projected surplus of $142,202. Staff recommends approval of the 42 request. 43 44 Councilmember Stille clarified that this is an annual payment and funding is also coming from 45 other sources. 46 4