Question 4: Should there be a performance audit of city departments?
Perla Mendoza
This week’s question is important because it comes down to accountability and how taxpayer dollars are being spent.
Each year, the City undergoes an accounting audit (ACFR), which examines whether its financial statements are prepared correctly and comply with governmental accounting standards. But that is not a Performance Audit.
A Performance Audit asks a different question: Is our government operating efficiently, effectively, economically, and with proper accountability? Bottom line: Are taxpayers getting their money’s worth?
The City Manager’s 2026–2027 Budget Message states that “operating costs are growing faster than revenues and the City faces long-term financial challenges.” That should concern all of us and underscores the need to identify where improvements can be made and how the City can live within its means. A Performance Audit can help provide those answers.
A properly scoped Performance Audit could examine:
• Main Street Management: Are City staffing, contracting, funding, and departmental responsibilities organized effectively to keep Main Street clean, attractive, and well maintained?
• Consultants: Are consultants being used appropriately? Could some work be performed more economically by City employees? Are contracts competitively procured, monitored, and delivering adequate value?
• Flooding: Were prevention, maintenance, emergency preparedness, drainage operations, staffing, and response procedures adequate during the recent flooding? What can we do better?
• Project bids exceeding estimates: Why are staff estimates repeatedly below actual bids? Are estimates outdated, scopes poorly developed, contingencies inadequate, projects delayed, or consultant estimates unreliable?
• Revenue versus spending: What is driving the City’s projected deficit—insufficient recurring revenue, expenditure growth, staffing costs, consultant costs, capital commitments, inefficient operations, or some combination?
Yes, I support a Performance Audit, with the audit firm selected and the scope directed by the City Council. If financial challenges are ahead, we should identify improvements and develop a plan before they become more difficult and costly to address.
These are my opinions, but I want to hear yours. This position is about representing you, and that means listening. Reach out, and let’s talk.
(714) 471-8388
Pe***@***************ch.com
www.perlaforsealbeach.com
P.S. Only two candidates are actively seeking this seat. Two withdrew after filing, but their names remain on the ballot. Winning requires 50% + 1 vote, and votes for withdrawn candidates could result in a costly runoff. I respectfully ask for your vote. Ballots will be mailed October 5.
Matthew Terry
First, I’m holding a meet and greet on Saturday, September 19, at 341 13th Street. Come by anytime between 1pm and 4pm, say hi, let’s talk Seal Beach.
Also, as a reminder, the city has an outside CPA firm audit our books every year. Two council members sit down with the auditor to go over the audit before it comes to the full council. So the budget already has outside eyes on it.
Yes, I do think there should be a performance audit of how the city departments run. I’m an architect, but my job’s focus is on integrating technology into the architectural practice to make the company better and more efficient at what it does. I develop the standards, workflows and automations that over a hundred people rely on every day, and I teach and train the people who use them. So I have the experience to help identify where city departments can perform better, and I’d use my knowledge of technology to help bring the way the city runs into the 21st century.
But I don’t think we should leave the council off the hook when looking at the performance of city departments. Many of the inefficiencies in the city departments stem from an indecisive council asking city staff to modify finished work, resulting in staff doing the same job multiple times over. Inefficiencies also stem from delayed council decisions, which make things more expensive too. The council sets the stage for how well the departments can perform.
Looking at performance across the city as a whole, the most pressing issue is that we have become the city of good intentions, but bad follow-through. So many things that come out of the city have good intentions, but the poor outcome makes the whole effort almost seem like a waste of time and money. A short list includes the Main Street ficus trees, ad hoc committees whose recommendations to the council go nowhere, the new city website full of broken links and almost worse than the old one, the pool that’s been studied for years and never built, the Circuit shuttle… and I’m sure you all have your own examples to add to this list. We can’t keep spending our time and money on well-intentioned things without getting better results. If elected, I will follow through.