FC061422FINANCE COMMITTEE MEETING
June 14, 2022
Elected Officials Participating Virtually
Councilmember Diane Buckshnis (Chair)
Councilmember Will Chen
Council President Vivian Olson (ex-officio)
CALL TO ORDER
Staff Participating Virtually
Jeff Taraday, City Attorney
Scott Passey, City Clerk
The meeting was called to order in the City Council Conference Room and virtually at 5:30 p.m. by
Councilmember Buckshnis.
2. COMMITTEE BUSINESS
1. April 2022 Monthly Financial Report
Finance staff was not present. Committee members raised the following issues:
• What are the future plan for funds invested with Snohomish County pool and the state pool?
• Non departmental is down
• REET is down slightly
• Public Works is down 53%
Action: Consent Agenda
11%
Is that due to the director's salary?
2. 2022 State Auditor Office (SAO) Audit Exit Follow Up
Councilmember Buckshnis recalled the City distributed funds to businesses according to its own
criteria. A letter was sent to the businesses in January to confirm they were still in business and
stating the loan would convert to a grant and requesting a response. She did not recall seeing the
letter and she questioned whether council should have been involved in converting the loans to grants
as the amount distributed $1.2 million which was over the mayor's limit.
Mr. Taraday said he has not reviewed the meeting minutes, ordinance or other documentation that
Councilmember Buckshnis' question implicates. He recalled the council authorized grants, not loans,
with certain conditions consistent with federal law and the CARES program. One of the conditions
was to incentivize businesses to remain in business and the loan -to -grant structure was a vehicle to
make that happen. Assuming his recollection was accurate, no further council authorization was
required because the council had already authorized the grants. The grants were structured as a loan
for the purpose of enforcing the grant conditions.
Questions and discussion followed regarding the grant conditions, lack of data, actual business losses
during specific months of the year, number of businesses who responded to the letter, next steps in
response to audit findings, whether the City wants to treat businesses who did not suffer a loss and
were dishonest in obtaining a grant the same as businesses who suffered a loss but do not have a
detailed month -to -month breakdown of their loss, who will conduct a grant audit, amount of resources
the City wants to devote to conducting a grant audit, whether businesses had to have a physical
Edmonds address, small businesses who did not apply, and whether to pursue criminal action if
investigation concludes there was dishonesty rather than just asking for the funds to be paid back.
Action: Further discussion at next month's meeting.
3. ADJOURN
The meeting was adjourned at 6:00 p.m.