During this time under a declared emergency due to COVID-19, our office is re-assessing our audit work. We are pausing some of our audits to allow for essential city staff to respond to the current public health crisis before continuing our audit work. In an emergency situation, city workers can be designated as disaster workers. To help the City of Berkeley, we currently have audit staff working at the Emergency Operations Center. I want to thank the City for activating the Emergency Operations Center back in January to start the important planning needed to respond to this crisis.
We are also pivoting to conduct research on high-level economic impacts on city revenues and expenditures. The purpose of this information is to help city management and City Council develop a coordinated strategy to manage resources and provide needed services during and after this pandemic. Working collaboratively with city staff, we will share this information report in the near future.