08315396 MINUTES
City Commission, Sanford, Florida, .......A..L.T.~.~?....~..~....a...~....~...P.;...~: ........... 19.~....
The City Commission of
the City of tanford, Florida, met in adjourned session at the City
Hall in the City of Sanford, Florida, at 8:00 o'Clock P. M. August 31, 1953:
Present:
Commissioner Randall Chase, Mayor
" J.D. Cordell
" John D. Ivey
" John L. Kader
" W. H. Stamper
City Attorney A. Edwin Shinholser
City Clerk H. N. Sayer
City Manager Thos~ L. Lemon.
Meeting called to order by the Chairman.
of the firm of Blitch
Gordon P. Blitch,/Tyson & Meek, Certified Public Accountants,
next appeared and submitted
the following letter of recommendations and proposal for revising the accounting system, which
was ~sken under advisement:
BLITCH, TYSON AND MEEK
Certified Public Accountants
Conrad Building
DeLand, Florida.
August 31, 1953
The Mayor and
The City Commission
City of Sanford, Florida.
Gentlemen:
As a part of our continuous audit, we have surveyed the accounting records and
procedures under the supervision of your City Clerk. Although we have only be-
gun our audit work for the year ending September 30, 1953, I am of the opinion
that t?~ City Clerk, and his assistant, are c.ompetent in their work.
Our survey shows that the accounting system, while apparently adequate for
audit, is in need of revision. Some of the suggested changes that we feel
should be started st October l, 1953, are listed below:
1. The records should be maintained on the basis of the budget, with all ac-
counts clsssiflcs~.lons exactly the same as the budget accounts.
The appropriation portion of the present ledger should be eliminated en-
tirely ~s this iv unnecessary work. The ledger accounts should have at the
top ~he budget amounts ss memoranda information.
The records should be maintained on a modified cash basis, that is, the
Revenues Control Account, and Expenditures Control Account should represent
cash transactions only, with the subsidiary records also cash transactions
only.
A study should be made of the present funds of the City, and proper and
necessary funds only should be maintained.
Invoices for the expenditures should be paid by the Cl~y Clerk upon pre-
sentation to him properly processed. The Clerk may establish periodic
paym6nt periods, but the present procedure of only paying once a month
after receipt of statements should be changed.
6. The Accounts Payable ledger, presently maintained, should be eliminated
as it is time consuming, and largely unnecessary.
7. Co-ordinate the monthly report to the above chenges.
8. All revenues should be recorded in the revenue accounts, with none as
deductions from expenditure accounts.
Some of the procedures of your City tl~t we suggest changing are as follows:
1. Open a payroll bank account, and make payroll payments from it rather
than by cash.
The many loans and advances to employees should be stopped. This is a bad,
unnecessary ~)ractice that makes for much additional work, and really does
not benefit t~ employees in ~he long run.
It is further recommended that a National Accounting Machine be obtained as
soon as is practicable, and that our records be maintained now in a manner to
make the transition as easy ~s possible.
It is respectfully called to the attention of the Commission tD-~t the work and
conferences required in the planning, and actually making the system charges is
beginning to run into considerable time. In order tha~ the t~me for audit proce-
dures will not be too greatly consumed' in this necessary system work, it is sug-
gested th, t the 53-54 budget allow up to $500.00 for such system work. Under the
suggested plan_we will submit invoices for the work as necessary, subject to ap-
MINUTES 97
August 31 at 8 P M. 1953
City Commission, Sanford, Florida, . ......... : ................................... i"""iii'][i~[' "i~i~[; ..........
From time to
find 1 ng~.
time we plan to present to you progress reports of
our work and
Respectfully submitted,
S/ Gordon P. Blltch
Certified Public Accountant
Mr. Smith, representative of International Business Machines Company, next appeared and
demonstrated an electric typewriter with decimal tabulation, w~ich is needed in the Clerk's
office for preparing the tax rolls, and submitted price of $550.00 for a machine with 20-inch
carriage.
No action taken.
The Commission then proceeded to a further study of the estimated budget of revenues and
expenditures for the fiscal year 1953-1954.
On motion of Commissioner Cordell, seconded by Commissioner Kadet and carried, the Com-
mission authorized the sum of $3,500.00 tq be ao?oorlated in the Fire Deoartmen~ for purchase
of a small booster truck ~o replace the old Dodge booster, snd $6,000.00 toward cost of pur-
chasing one large booster ~ruck to replace one of the old American-LaFrance trucks.
On motion of Commissioner Stemper, seconded by Commissioner Kadet and carried, the Com-
mission authorized the tax levy for Depertment of Debt Service for the year 195S to be placed
at 6.5000 Mills.
The meeting then adjourned until 8:00 o'clock P. M. September l, 1953.
ATTEST:
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CITY- (LERK