HomeMy WebLinkAboutItem 8.1 Report on Finance and Investment Committee Roles and Responsibilities
STAFF REPORT
CITY COUNCIL
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Agenda Item 8.1
DATE: November 18, 2025
TO: Honorable Mayor and City Councilmembers
FROM: Colleen Tribby, City Manager
SUBJECT:
Report on Finance and Investment Committee Roles and Responsibilities
Prepared by: Jay Baksa, Finance Director
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
The City Council will receive a report on the roles and responsibilities of the Finance and
Investment Committee and discuss whether to expand those to include other financial matters.
STAFF RECOMMENDATION:
Receive the report and discuss.
FINANCIAL IMPACT:
None.
DESCRIPTION:
At the November 4, 2025 meeting, the City Council requested under Item 9 that an agenda
item be brought forward regarding the Finance and Investment Committee’s current roles and
responsibilities, to consider expanding into other areas that have a financial impact to the City.
Background
During the 2024 review of the City’s Investment Policy, the City Council directed Staff to
establish a Finance and Investment Committee (FIC) responsible for reviewing and advising
on specialized investment and financial matters. The FIC was formally created on October 15,
2024 through Resolution No. 120-24.
The establishing resolution states that the FIC will serve in an advisory capacity on matters
related to the City’s investment policy and portfolio, the City budget, long-term financial
planning, funding strategies for complex projects, and other specialized finance-related topics.
The Committee will provide policy guidance to Staff and will serve as an advisory body to the
full City Council but will not make legislative decisions. The FIC is one of three City committees
that are internal in nature – that is, they comprise a subset of the City Council and their work
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relates solely to City business and operations. The other committees are the Economic
Development Committee and the Ad Hoc Audit Subcommittee.
Vice Mayor Kashef Qaadri and Councilmember Michael McCorriston were appointed as the
inaugural FIC members. The FIC began operating in early 2025 and established a schedule of
regular quarterly meetings with special meetings held as needed.
The Committee’s first priority was the comprehensive review of the City’s Investment Policy.
This work culminated in a revised policy—presented to the City Council in September 2025—
and the addition of annual Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) scoring of the C ity’s
investment portfolio. The FIC also receives quarterly investment performance updates from the
City’s investment manager, Chandler Asset Management.
Discussion
It was contemplated during the November 4 City Council meeting that the FIC should
potentially expand its duties to include oversight over all areas that have a financial impact to
the City. Staff looked back at the City Council meetings this calendar year to date (11 months)
to understand the impact of using the FIC in such a manner. Since January 2025, the City
Council has considered 156 items on Regular Meeting agendas, excluding Approval of
Minutes and items under the Presentations and Proclamations section. Of those, 84 items
have some financial impact to the City. These can be generally categorized as follows:
Purchasing
Grants and economic incentives: 10 items
Service agreements: 28 items
Capital Improvement Program projects: 14 items
Budget
Budget adoption (operating and capital): 6 items
Other (fee/assessment adoptions, special projects): 7 items
Personnel-related: 2 items
Financial Management and Reporting
Investment reviews: 5 items
Reserve designations: 2 items
Payment issuance: 10 items
From Staff’s perspective, the advantage of using the FIC as it is currently structured is to be
able to delve into technical items and receive questions and commentary from committee
members that will help Staff prepare for presentation to the full City Council. This is particularly
useful for items like investment report reviews and for specialized items like bond sales. In
addition, the quarterly schedule of the FIC meetings provides Staff with adequate time to
prepare materials.
Expanding the FIC’s role to include oversight of the categories listed above would require a
significant change to the allocation of staff resources and to the FIC meeting schedule in order
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for the City Council to be able to conduct routine business in a timely manner. It would also
add a layer of scrutiny to items that are not highly complex in nature or that already have
adequate controls in place. For instance, purchasing (which includes contracted services) is
governed by strict bidding rules, has purchase authority limitations, and has budgetary impacts
that the full City Council is accustomed to navigating.
Areas that Staff does envision the FIC will delve into in the future (in addition to investment
reviews) include:
Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (ACFR) – Audit Review
o The FIC could serve in place of the Ad Hoc Audit Subcommittee by reviewing the
City’s annual audit.
Budget Reviews
o Review the Mid-Year Budget and/or Preliminary Budget Report before it is
presented to the City Council.
Financial Policy Review
o Staff is currently revising the Fund Balance Policy and anticipates bringing a
preliminary draft to the FIC in 2026.
Bond Issuance Review
o The City currently has one outstanding bond issuance (Citywide Energy
Efficiency Project) and has issued bonds on behalf of Community Facilities
Districts (CFDs). Additional issuances are anticipated for the Francis Ranch and
Dublin Centre CFD projects.
STRATEGIC PLAN INITIATIVE:
None.
NOTICING REQUIREMENTS/PUBLIC OUTREACH:
The City Council Agenda was posted.
ATTACHMENTS:
None.
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Finance and Investment
Committee Roles and
Responsibilities
November 18, 2025
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FIC Overview
•Established in October 2024
•Serves as an advisory capacity to the City Council
–Investments, budget, long-term financial planning, funding for
complex projects, etc.
•VM Qaadri, CCM McCorriston selected
•Began meeting in January 2025
–Review of Investment Policy
•Recommendation to City Council in September
–Quarterly investment review before City Council review
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Item 9 Request
•Evaluate expanding the FIC’s role into other finance matters
•Staff looked at agenda items from January 2025 – present
–Purchasing (52 items)
–Budget prep and adoption (15 items)
–Financial Management and Reporting (17 items)
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Item 9 Request
•Staff considered level of complexity
–More complex (multi-faceted) items that impact long-term
financial stability include:
•Investment portfolio and strategy
•Budget prep (and the 10-year forecast)
•Special project financing (e.g. bond sales)
•Financial policies (Investment Policy, Fund Balance Policy)
–Less complex items include:
•Purchasing (parameters and internal processes are in place)
•Grants, agreements, fee adoptions
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Item 9 Request
•Extra level of scrutiny creates value for Staff and the Council on the
more complex items
–First “set of eyes” on information
–Dig into the details
–Discuss long-term trends
•Creates additional opportunity for the public to weigh on such items
–Potential revenue measures
–Financing of complex projects
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Future FIC Items
Staff already plans to have the FIC meet on:
•Budget Reviews
–Review the Mid-Year Budget and/or Preliminary Budget Report
before it is presented to the City Council.
•Financial Policy Review
–Staff is currently revising the Fund Balance Policy and anticipates
bringing a preliminary draft to the FIC in 2026.
•Bond Issuance Review
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Additional consideration:
•Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (ACFR) – Audit Review
–Serve in place of the Ad Hoc Audit Subcommittee by reviewing
the City’s annual audit.
Future FIC Items
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Questions?
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