In the coming months, the city may have three sets of eyes monitoring its books. In addition to the Sacramento City Council’s plans to fill the city’s vacant internal auditor position early next year, the council may bring in two more parties to review the city’s finances, according to members of the Sacramento City Council. 

The City Council decided at its Tuesday meeting to start the process of hiring an independent company to audit the city’s finances. The city also plans to fill its currently vacant position for an internal auditor. And, there may be a third set of eyes monitoring the city’s books: Councilman Rob Fong noted that the City Council is likely to approve a proposal from the Sacramentans for Accountable Government group to create an independent budget analyst position.

At the meeting, the City Council asked city staff to request proposals from independent companies that could conduct the audit. Mayor Kevin Johnson has made many public comments calling for an independent audit from an outside company.

The City Council decided against an idea from staff to task the outside auditor with reviewing the city’s labor agreements. “To me, that’s policy,” Councilwoman Sandy Sheedy said. The city decides whether labor negotiations are correct or incorrect, she said, and that task should not go to an outside firm.

Meanwhile, the city is saving money by keeping the internal auditor position vacant. The city’s internal auditor position has been vacant since May 20, when former auditor Marty Kolkin left the post for a new job in Santa Monica. Patti Bisharat, the city’s director of governmental affairs, told the City Council Tuesday that the internal auditor position may not be filled until January 2010 or later.

The city will have saved $100,000 by delaying the hiring of the internal auditor until December, according to Bisharat. The city still plans to hire an internal auditor.

When the city fills the internal auditor position, the auditor will report to the City Council instead of the city manager. Councilmembers in April said the internal auditor’s office could work in a more transparent way if it was supervised by the City Council. Because the city is changing the way the internal auditor’s office is supervised, the city needs to set up new ordinances, according to the city manager’s office.

Apart from thanking city staffers, city officials and councilmembers, Johnson did not make any comments about the outside auditor topic at Tuesday’s meeting.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.