Centralizaing Citys Billing Functions

Motion - The Controller has just issued an audit of the City's revenue collection process which recommends the centralizing of this function within one department. The Controller's "audit found that departments were not following several of the key guidelines and the Office of Finance was providing limited oversight to ensure compliance with the Guidelines. Furthermore, the audit found that there needs to be better coordination amongst departments. Many of the problems noted in our report could potentially be eliminated if the billing and collection process was centralized. To achieve this, it is necessary to invest in information system infrastructure. We recognize that such investment may be costly, but the long-term benefits could outweigh these costs." The Controller's audit further found that "The City needs to strongly consider having one department (e.g., the Office of Finance) bill for all collections. This should allow the City to know its total accounts receivable at all times, broken down by the age of account. Centralizing the billing function under one department should also eliminate or reduce other problems noted in our audit such as timely follow up of collections, uniform interest rates, and timely referrals of delinquent accounts for write-off. It may be costly to put the necessary infrastructure in place to centralize the process. However, the long-term benefits could outweigh these costs. Until the City has a centralized billing function, the Office of Finance needs to monitor to ensure that all departments submit the required quarterly accounts receivable reports." The Controller further indicated that currently, the Office of Finance has a Citywide Collection Unit consisting of 20 staff. As part of this review the City should examine whether this process should be performed by City staff or referred to an outside collection agency without impacting the amount of revenue collected. THEREFORE MOVE that the City Administrative Officer, with the assistance of the Office of Finance and the Chief Legislative Analyst be directed to report on centralizing the City's billing functions, as further detailed in the Controller's audit of this matter, whether this process should be performed by City staff or referred to an outside collection agency without impacting the amount of revenue collected, and whether changes in the frequency of billing and collections could result in cost savings to the City.