What's needed

1. Please don't vote for any incumbents in the 2014 San Mateo County Harbor District election.
2. The State Controller should conduct a thorough investigation of the Harbor District's finances, including an evaluation of internal controls and accounting procedures, to prevent more incidents such as the "pile of missing checks."
3. Please read the findings and recommendations included in the scathing 2014 San Mateo County Civil Grand Jury Report.
4. The District needs to be more open and transparent to the public regarding financial matters. The current and recent past budgets and monthly/quarterly reports should be online.  See for example OpenGov.com.
5. The Commission adopted policy 4.6.1 regarding their Finance Committee.  They should follow 4.6.1 which calls for "On a regular basis, at least bimonthly, the Finance Committee of the Board of Harbor Commissioners will review all bank account reconciliation information."  Of course, to do this, they'd have to start meeting again — the Finance Committee hasn't met in a decade.
6. Reduce the number of credit cards provided to staff. Currently over 90% of the staff have District-issued credit cards.  On Dec. 17, 2013 the General Manager breached security when he accidentally released 14 of the District's credit card account numbers to the public via email. There may not be sufficient oversight of the District's credit cards, for example, some of the charges paid by the District appear to be for personal expenses such as commissioner car repairs.