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CONEJO RECREATION AND PARK DISTRICT AND THE MOUNTAINS RECREATIONAND CONSERVATION AUTHORITY PROPOSAL FOR PROFESSIONAL AUDITING SERVICES Partner, supervisory and staff qualifications (continued) Partner and supervisory staff involvement All partners and supervisory staff are working professionals and are actively and continually involved in all aspects of their engagements. We believe that partner and supervisory staff involvement in all areas of the audit is a key aspect of the overall audit process. This involvement includes being on-site for interim and year- end fieldwork, thus facilitating a proper, efficient and effective audit, with minimal disruption of your staff. In addition, the time spent on-site by the partners and supervisory staff ensures they gain an understanding of the entire District's accounting processes and procedures. This understanding will enable them to evaluate and develop opportunities for efficiency as well as offer practical and functional advice for improving your accounting processes and procedures. All professionals on this engagement have worked on audits similar in nature to the District's, therefore, the District will not have to train our engagement team. Staff continuity Continuity of audit staff is a principal concern with our firm. In order to retain our staff, we offer extremely competitive wages, opportunities for advancement, generous medical packages, a retirement plan, bonus opportunities, as well as educational benefits. Even with the benefits we provide, we realize we may lose staff at any given time. Knowing this, we plan to provide staff continuity from year to year, which is in the best interest of the District and our firm. Continuity ensures an orderly, efficient, and less disruptive audit experience. Since we cannot guarantee staff will remain with us, principal supervisory and management staff, including engagement partners, managers, other supervisory staff, and specialists, may be changed if those personnel leave the firm or are promoted. However, the District reserves the right to accept or reject replacements. We believe that due to the significant involvement of the partners on all of our engagements, any staff transition would have a minimal effect on the audit efficiency and effectiveness of subsequent years. Continuing professional education Our team of auditor specialists stays current in this highly technical practice area by adhering to the continuing professional education requirements of Government Auditing Standards as well as the State Board of Accountancy guidelines. All professionals at our firm participate in continuing professional education (CPE) programs, which are sponsored by various organizations including the Government Finance Officers Association, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the California State Society of Certified Public Accountants, the California Society of Municipal Finance Officers and the Association of Government Accountants. Participation in these programs helps us to ensure that our clients are serviced with the best trained and most proficient government and not-for-profit auditors and accountants available. In addition, we provide in-house training taught by our partners and senior level staff using published resources. All staff are required to attend fraud and ethics training. It is our goal to provide our professional staff continuing education which exceeds the minimum standard of 80 hours over two years. In accordance with our firm's Quality Control document and Government Auditing Standards (GAS), all staff members who work on audits subject to GAS are required to complete CPE in accordance with GAS standards which require 24 hours directly related to governmental accounting and auditing. In addition to the required CPE, we also use the following to increase our technical knowledge: view the Governmental Audit Quality Center Annual Webcast Update and other relevant seminars and review monthly publications from the AICPA, the GFOA, and various other resources. We also attend conferences and seminars sponsored by the GFOA, California Society of Municipal Finance Officers and the California Special District Association. ( `40, AICPA GAQC Member in