While the outsourcing of Sun City’s financial and accounting activities continues at First Service Residential (FSR), the association board has begun the process of evaluating the move.
At the August 19 board meeting, it was announced that a seven-member ad hoc committee, that will conduct a review of the seven-month-old outsourcing activity, has three members, with four yet to be named. The first three are board members Ken Andersen, Dennis O’Leary, and Bill Bendick. Bendick is the current board liaison to the Finance Advisory Committee.
“We have applications of interest from several individuals, and we will decide in the next week or two which of them we will select,” said Bendick.
Formation of the committee was approved last fall when the board decided to out-source financial and accounting activities from a local staff to FSR in Pennsylvania. The move was made for what the board said were reasons of cost savings and efficiency.
Controversy about the outsourcing decision process emerged in recent weeks when two members of the Finance Advisory Committee (Bill Berendt and Bob McGouey) resigned because they said the outsourcing activity wasn’t working and the process used to make the decision was flawed.
The outsourcing process took effect on January 1, 2015 and the contract with FSR to carry it out expires at the end of this year. Bendick said last week that the ad hoc committee will address three aspects of the outsourcing issue, as it will:
1. Discuss the pros and cons of external vs. internal financial/accounting service.
2. Determine whether promised cost savings (reportedly more than $100,000 annually), are being achieved, and
3. Determine whether a Request For Proposal (RFP) is needed to explore consulting with other companies in the future.
Asked by a Sun City member at the August 19 meeting if the Finance Advisory Committee will be involved with the ad hoc committee, Bendick said, “We are still reviewing the ad hoc committee’s processes. We will probably ask the finance committee for advice on some specific items and to help keep discussions on track.“
