The mission of the City of Saint Paul Office of Financial Services (OFS) is to champion the financial health of the City and its residents and facilitate organizational effectiveness. Furthermore, the department seeks to:
- Ensure effective stewardship of the financial and physical assets of the City and its residents.
- Provide excellent service to internal and external customers, collaborating to deliver quality public services.
- Foster a caring, supportive, and anti-racist workplace that reflects and honors the community we serve.
Service to the Community
Financial Services is a predominantly internal department. Most external customers come in contact with the department at the administration office on the 7th floor of City Hall. The public can access the administration building to make payments on assessment bills or other invoices. The public and vendors also contact the main phone line to ask for assistance with invoices and Accounts Payable. The public may also interact with the department or department information via the website which has information for the public on payments, assessments, investments, the budget, and many other issues the department handles.
Services Offered
Plan Assessment Process
Facilities
| Area | Access Issue | Solution | Comments | Est. Cost | Date |
| CH700 | Lack of electronic door for people with mobility issues | Installing a door opener – Work collaboratively with the County to address accessibility issues | This is a County-managed building. Collaborate with the County to implement a solution for the whole building. | TBD | TBD |
| CH700 | Building Signage /wayfinding for visually impaired | Work collaboratively with Ramsey County to affect a solution | Some signs not in braille are not accessible to those with visual impairment. New signs made and whenever a sign is replaced should have a braille option if the sign is in reaching distance. If printed, make sure large enough font to be legible. | TBD | TBD |
| CHA 1000 | Can’t be accessed from Skyway because of stairs from skyway level to Elevator Lobby level. | Signage directing people to an accessible route | Already in process – design in house | $200 | May 1, 2024 |
Services
| Service | Who is Served | Accommodations / Considerations | Comments / Ideas for Improvement |
| Solid Waste Payments (trash and recycling) | Residents and businesses | Ease of payments and tracking payments. Making sure service is as accessible as possible for people with disabilities. | Add reoccurring payment options for solid waste (in process) By end of 2024, ACH recurring payment option only. Will still need credit card recurring. |
| Vendor Payments/AP | Vendors doing business with the City | Accessibility for people with cognitive or visual impairments. | Going live in September – vendors can submit new vendor request form themselves. |
| Payments from Customers - AR | Residents, businesses, city billing staff | Electronic payments/ billing portal would make it easier for customers to make payments – provide more options in the event that computer use is easier than reading mail, sending mail etc. Should work to make the portal easy for people with disabilities to navigate | Add electronic payment options – new AR billing portal coming end of 2024 |
| Printing/mailing Invoices for Merchants | Merchants/Vendors | Ease of access to invoices. Efficiency for City employees. Should work to make this system easy for people with disabilities to navigate | Create AR invoices in Infor to allow users to print invoices independently. |
| Budget Games | Residents | They have not included languages or accessibility info for meetings in written materials | A mostly Mayor’s Office initiative – collaborate with MO to address the issue for subsequent years |
| Assessment FAQs | Residents and businesses | Should be screen readable, plain language, and be easy to navigate | Add cliff notes version of policy to website and the FAQs to provide more complete information to customers. (Add language or ADA accessibility information if missing) End of 2024 |
| ADA Inquiries and Complaints | Residents by equipping employees | Post the information to submit inquiries and complaints as well as the basic process in ways that can be accessed by folks with disabilities or other barriers to set expectations and create clarity for all involved | Establish a committee to write and post SOPs Add ADA Grievance and Complaint Information and put a link or QR Code to the City ADA Portal on our webpages and invoices. And maybe even signature blocks |
| Invoicing the City | Vendors | Should be accessible/screen-readable | Invoicing guidance is currently buried in City Policy language and needs to be clearly documented for vendors and staff on the website |
| General Departmental Information | Residents, Vendors and Staff | Our landing page could be better organized to make it more navigable for people with cognitive and visual impairments – and the public in general. | OTC to assist with assessment of current state of information and help reorganize it. |
| (Real Estate) Information on Vacating Right of Way, Leasing and purchase of City Property and ADA related requests | Residents | Contact information is non-specific and there is not an easy way to submit requests | Real Estate-Specific email account for leasing and city property purchase inquiries – not just the contact-OFS email. Develop a Microsoft form for inquiries. |
Programs
| Program | Who is Served | Accommodations / Considerations | Comments / Ideas for Improvement |
| Guaranteed Income | Residents | These programs are both in OFE who is doing their own ADA Plan, but if we have programs of any kind, please include info here. | |
| College Bound Saint Paul | Residents |
Information
| Information Avenue | What Information is Conveyed Here? | How Is It Accessible? | Potential Barriers Between the Public and This Information? |
| OFS City Website[DC1] [LL2] | Budget, ACFR, assessments, etc. | Documents should be reviewed for accessibility Rearrange the buttons in order of importance and need for the public. Perhaps put in 3 main buckets and house buttons or topics in larger areas. “Make a payment” (Fees and Assessments, E Pay, etc.) “Saint Paul Budget and Tax Information” | |
| OFS City Website | Real Estate Information | ||
| OFS City Website | ARP | PDF Documents and tables may be hard to read with screen reader. | |
| OFS City Website | Public Art Ordinance | Needs to be moved to PED and updated. | |
| OFS City Website | Innovations Team Information | Needs to be updated and potentially moved to internal Saint Paul Connect. PDF Documents may be hard to read with screen reader. | |
| OFS City Website | Ticket and Fine Information | Online links to relevant departments and agencies. | Make clear that Tickets and Fines are managed by the Courts, and that the link is taking user to a District Court site; keep the links current |
| OFS City Website | Audited Comprehensive Financial Reports | Online PDFs | PDFs, especially portions with tables may be hard to read with a screen reader for those with visual impairment[MZ3] . |
| OFS City Website | Current and Past Budgets | Online PDFs | PDFs, especially portions with tables may be hard to read with a screen reader for those with visual impairment. |
| OFS City Website | Tax Estimator | Online tool | Needs to be updated; online tool may be hard to use for those with visual impairment or cognitive issues |
| OFS City Website | Investor Relations Information | ||
| OFS City Website | Assessment and Fee Payment Information | Assessments for individual properties can be searched and paid online; links to other city fee payment pages | Not sure if it is screen readable or needs work on accessibility for visually or cognitively impaired. |
| Direct Mail | Assessment Notices | Delivered directly to home or business. | We hope to implement a paperless option in which these documents go out to consumers in digitally accessible formats.
|
| Direct Mail | Invoices[MZ4] [DC5] | Delivered directly to home or business. | We hope to implement a paperless option for vendors in which these documents go out to consumers in digitally accessible formats. Embed accommodation request form links or QR codes on direct mails. |
| Direct Mail | Past-Due/Late Payment Notices | Delivered directly to home or business. | We hope to implement a paperless option in which these documents go out to consumers in digitally accessible formats. Embed accommodation request form links or QR codes on direct mails. |
| Direct Mail | AP Checks/Vendor Payments | Delivered directly to home or business. | We hope to implement a paperless option in which these documents go out to consumers in digitally accessible formats. Embed accommodation request form links or QR codes on direct mails. |
| Direct Mail | Annual 1099 | Delivered directly to home or business. | We hope to implement a paperless option in which these documents go out to consumers in digitally accessible formats. Embed accommodation request form links or QR codes on direct mails. |
| BondLink (website) | Investor relations | I believe it is accessible. We can confirm. | |
| EMMA (website) | Debt disclosures | Likely not accessible, but we’ve made some small improvements. Unknown about site overall. | Very dense material; geared for finance professionals, investors and regulators |
Policy
| Name of Policy | What Information Is Conveyed Here? | How Is It Accessible? |
| Cash Handling Policy | How to appropriately handle cash | The document meets accessibility standards. |
