HomeMy WebLinkAboutE-10 Staff Report - MuniServices Agreements ExtensionsCONSENT ITEM
E-10
TO: HONORABLE MAYOR AND MEMBERS OF THE CITY COUNCIL
VIA: SERGIO GONZALEZ, CITY MANAGER
FROM: TALIKA M. JOHNSON, DIRECTOR OF ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES
DATE: MAY 1, 2023
SUBJECT: APPROVAL OF FOUR PROFESSIONAL SERVICES AGREEMENT EXTENSIONS
FOR REVENUE COMPLIANCE AUDITS AND DISCOVERY SERVICES
BACKGROUND:
On January 19, 2021, the City Council approved four MuniServices Professional Services agreements for
separate revenue compliance audits and discovery services. As a best practice, Staff periodically conducts
compliance audits to protect the City’s revenues by ensuring correct tax rates are applied, reviewing remittances
of collected revenues for accuracy, and billing for the revenues the City is eligible to receive including the
City’s Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT), Business License Tax, Utility User’s Tax (UUT) and the City’s State
Video franchise fee and Public, education, and government (PEG) access fee. Since 2021, the City has
outsourced these compliance audits and discovery services to MuniService, a firm specializing in these types
audit services.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
Staff recommends the City Council take the following actions:
1)Authorize extensions to the audit agreements to January 18, 2024 at amounts not to exceed $25,000
per year per agreement; and
2)Authorize the City Manager to approve two (2) additional one-year extensions for each agreement,
upon satisfactory performance in an amount not to exceed $25,000 per audit service.
ANALYSIS:
MuniServices has performed tax compliance audit for Business License Tax since 2017 and also conducted the
TOT, UUT and State Video Franchise/PEG fee compliance audits since January 2021. Legislatively and legally,
the Business License, TOT, UUT and State Video Franchise/PEG fee are complex, and MuniServices is
Approved
City Council
May 1, 2023
Approval of four PSA Agreement Extensions for Revenue Compliance Audit and Discovery Services
May 1, 2023
Page 2
the recognized expert in this field with extensive legal, financial, and audit experience. The recommended actions
help ensure timely compliance audits to protect and enhance the City’s revenues based on the scope of work
outlined in each agreement. Approval of the agreement extension will minimize the compliance audit costs for
the City. It is anticipated this program would improve compliance audit and revenue recovery for business license
tax, TOT, UUT, and State Video Franchise/PEG fees. Table 1 summarizes revenues the City recovered in the past
few fiscal years.
Table 1
The original City Council approval in January 19, 2021 authorized each agreement at a not to exceed cost of
$25,000. The Agreements were subsequently renewed in January 19, 2022 for an additional $25,000 per audit
service. Section 2-538(7)(ii) (Award of professional, management, general or special services contracts) of the
Azusa Municipal Code provides that:
“For a contract originally executed for an amount of $50,000.00 and over and originally approved by city
council, the purchasing officer shall have authority to issue contract amendments, provided that the sum
of all contract amendments for any single contract shall not exceed the amount approved by city council.
If the amended contract will exceed the amount previously approved by city council, the contract
amendment must be approved by city council.”
In this case, the vendor has received $50,000 for each audit service, even though the City has not technically paid
the vendor this amount since the vendor is paid according to a percentage recovered from their audit work.
Nevertheless, because the City does not have municipal codes that address revenue sharing agreements like this,
staff is seeking approval under the standard professional services agreement and extension approval process
described above.
In summary, approving the extension of the four agreements will not cost the City any money. The agreements
are designed as revenue sharing arrangements, and will only enhance the City’s revenues. Table 2 summarizes
the percentage of revenue the City and the vendor receive.
DISCOVERY REVENUE SUMMARY - Business License Tax & TOT
Fiscal Years Muni Payments Azusa Revenues
Total Revenues
Recovered
FY 2020-21-Bus Lic 1,589.53$ 3,009.98$ 4,599.51$
FY 2020-21-TOT** 2,000.00$ 1,432.87$ 1,432.87$
FY 2021-22-Bus Lic 9,197.22$ 16,962.83$ 26,160.05$
FY 2022-23-Bus Lic 1,908.84$ 3,589.01$ 5,497.85$
Grand Total 14,695.59$ 24,994.69$ 37,690.28$
**TOT Audit has a $2,000 min audit payment per PSA
Approval of four PSA Agreement Extensions for Revenue Compliance Audit and Discovery Services
May 1, 2023
Page 3
Table 2
Each audit service is capped so that the vendor will receive a maximum of $25,000 per audit service. The
compliance audits will not result in increases in taxes assessed to residents or businesses, rather ensures businesses
responsible for assessing these taxes in accordance with the City’s Municipal Code are properly remitted to the
City.
FISCAL IMPACT:
Each of the four (4) agreements are revenue sharing based whereas the City shall only pay MuniServices the
percentage listed above of revenues recovered based on the audit findings. MuniServices will send the City
100% of the revenues collected, and City staff will then remit to the Consultant the percentage agreed upon.
There is no minimum cost on the revenue sharing agreement unless Staff opts for additional services with the
exception of the TOT compliance audit agreement, where there is a minimum annual fee of $2,000 or 25% of
the recovered revenues, whichever is greater. Any revenues recovered will have a positive fiscal impact for the
City.
Prepared By: Reviewed and Approved:
Richard Lam Talika M. Johnson
Budget & Revenue Manager Director of Administrative Services
Reviewed and Approved:
Sergio Gonzalez
Manager
Attachment:
1. Extensions of audit agreements through January 18, 2024 (16 pages).
Muni Services Revenue Sharing Percentage* - Recovery of New Revenues Generated From Audit
Tax Category Muni Svcs %Azusa %Agreement Status
Business License 35 65 Extend Existing Agreement
Transient Occupancy Tax*25 75 Extend Existing Agreement
Utility User Tax 25 75 Extend Existing Agreement
State Video Franchise 25 75 Extend Existing Agreement
* = There is a minimum annual fee threhold associated with this category
Attachment 1