PERIOD REPORT
DATE: September 11, 2018 Report No. FIN-18-013
TO: Laurie Hurst, Chief Administrative Officer
FROM: Ian Irvine, Director of Financial Services
SUBJECT:TITLE Financial Services and IT Departments - 2018 Second Period Report
Body
The following is a report on the activities pertaining to the Financial Services and IT Departments from May 1, 2018 to August 31, 2018.
I. DIVISION ACHIEVEMENTS AND ACTIVITIES
1. Budgeting, Financial Reporting and Accounting Operations
• The Audited Financial Statements for the year ended December 31, 2017 were presented by the auditors and approved by Council in May. The result was a clean audit opinion and no significant unresolved audit findings were identified.
• The Township’s 2017 Annual Report and the Statement of Financial Information (SOFI) were approved by Council in June.
• Property tax notices were mailed in May and all outstanding tax reminder notices were processed and mailed in July.
• Property tax statistics - 2018
Ø Current property taxes collected as of July 4 - 91.2% (2017: 91.1%)
Ø Current property taxes collected in full as of August 31 - 95.1% (2017: 95.6%)
Ø Home owner grants claimed as of August 31 - 3,849 (2017: 3,843)
• Tax deferment statistics - 2018
o Total deferments - 476 (2017: 427)
o New applications - 82 (2017: 86)
o Total deferred taxes - $1,712,990 (2017: $1,480,814)
• Properties with delinquent taxes were identified for potential inclusion in the 2018 tax sale scheduled in September. The relevant title holders and mortgage companies were contacted. The department continues to communicate with all parties in an attempt to avoid the need for a tax sale.
• An initial payment in lieu of taxes (PILT) amount was received in June. The amount received was slightly less than the amount requested in the application based on the BC Assessment valuations. The Township will await notice of the total amount to be received before determining whether an appeal needs to be filed.
2. Risk Management
• There are no unusual or significant liability insurance claims against the Township.
• Coordinated adequate risk mitigation regarding the skydiving exhibition at the annual Buccaneer Days event.
3. Information Technology
• New server and storage infrastructure has been acquired, installed and configured. Migration from the previous servers is ongoing and will result in a more robust and easier to use infrastructure to support all Township systems.
• In an effort to provide better wireless coverage for employees and visitors to Township facilities, the procurement and testing of new wireless access points has been performed. Implementation at the Municipal Hall has been completed while other facilities are scheduled to be completed during the next period.
• During the period, a total of 340 tickets (requests for IT support) were addressed and closed. This represents a 10% increase in closed calls from the first period of 2018.
• Some system upgrades have been performed to add enhancements and fix potential vulnerabilities.
• A secure Virtual Private Network (VPN) has been established between the Township and the City of Surrey to support the new fire dispatch system. Testing is ongoing and is expected to go live in September.
II. COMMITTEES
Preparation was completed for the review of Permissive Tax Exemptions by the Local Grant Committee. All applications that were received prior to the August 17 deadline were assembled for review by the Committee in early September.