There’s a big story about Lowell in the Los Angeles Times this week. “In storied New England mill city, Cambodian Americans make political history” was precipitated by Sokhary Chau’s election as Mayor of Lowell earlier this year, making him the first Cambodian American mayor in the United States. The story reviews how Cambodian American residents of Lowell with allies from outside the city’s historic power structure came together to mount a legal challenge to the all-at-large method of electing city councilors that had been in place since 1959 and how the settlement of that legal challenge led to the election of a more diverse and representative city council.
The way the city handles purchasing has always been a nightmare for the cultural council. In an ideal world the cultural council would request purchase orders for all grants written at the time they are awarded. Unfortunately there are two problems . . . one being that the cultural council operates on a January 1 to December 31 fiscal year due to Mass Cultural Council rules while the city runs on a July 1 to June 30 fiscal year. Any cultural council written PO's that are not paid out by the end of the city fiscal year are cancelled and have to be rewritten, this puts an extra burden on the admin and on the department processing purchase orders. The other is that cultural council grants are reimbursement grants, yet all monies received from the city are considered taxable income by the IRS, in order to ease the tax burden on individual artists MCC recommends third party payment to vendors used by a grantee . . . which means multiple purchase orders might have to be written on a single grant and the amounts might not be known until the third party vendor invoice is received, creating the kind of situation noted by the auditors.
Thanks for highlighting this article and giving it some context. As I read it the first time and again in today's Sun Long Beach came to mind.
Let's hope the audit spurs some long over due changes to how the City manages the books. A great first step and money saver would be to go to a bi-weekly payroll system and require direct deposit. It is a long time standard for most municipalities as well as the Commonwealth. Certainly it will require some impact bargaining and we have the right folks to bring to the table between the Council and the Manager.
So much of the manner in which the COL does business makes even the easy things hard for staff and residents. Change is difficult and often requires some up front investment which will cause some nay sayers to say nay. The current Council can and should make positive change their legacy
The way the city handles purchasing has always been a nightmare for the cultural council. In an ideal world the cultural council would request purchase orders for all grants written at the time they are awarded. Unfortunately there are two problems . . . one being that the cultural council operates on a January 1 to December 31 fiscal year due to Mass Cultural Council rules while the city runs on a July 1 to June 30 fiscal year. Any cultural council written PO's that are not paid out by the end of the city fiscal year are cancelled and have to be rewritten, this puts an extra burden on the admin and on the department processing purchase orders. The other is that cultural council grants are reimbursement grants, yet all monies received from the city are considered taxable income by the IRS, in order to ease the tax burden on individual artists MCC recommends third party payment to vendors used by a grantee . . . which means multiple purchase orders might have to be written on a single grant and the amounts might not be known until the third party vendor invoice is received, creating the kind of situation noted by the auditors.
Thanks for highlighting this article and giving it some context. As I read it the first time and again in today's Sun Long Beach came to mind.
Let's hope the audit spurs some long over due changes to how the City manages the books. A great first step and money saver would be to go to a bi-weekly payroll system and require direct deposit. It is a long time standard for most municipalities as well as the Commonwealth. Certainly it will require some impact bargaining and we have the right folks to bring to the table between the Council and the Manager.
So much of the manner in which the COL does business makes even the easy things hard for staff and residents. Change is difficult and often requires some up front investment which will cause some nay sayers to say nay. The current Council can and should make positive change their legacy