The city undergoes an audit performed by an external audit firm each year. The fiscal year 2007 was no exception and an audit was completed by Miller Management Systems. The summary of the audit was presented to the BOA this past Tuesday by Harold Spinner, a member of the appointed (by the Board and Mayor) Audit Committee. Mr Spinner reported Miller Management Systems had conducted a 2 hour session to present, in detail, the findings of the audit.
(An aside...you might recall insinuations/rumors/questions during the city campaigns this past Spring. In particular, some of this stemmed from comments/remarks made by Aldermen Hoy and White during BOA meetings leading up to the election. Like other situations (WLIC) in the recent past the insinuations/rumors/questions took on a life of their own. This spawned the post election appointment of the Audit Committee, one mandate being a possible recommendation for a more extensive/expensive financial audit of the City. This in turn propagated the belief that the City was not complying with state law by not conducting a financial audit. Got it?)
Now to the bottom line, disturbing as it might be, to those who believe there were financial "issues" in the City. Miller Management Systems found the financial management of the City, in 2007, to be surprisingly good in spite of the small size of the operation. In fact, of all the small government entities and non-profits it has audited, they rank WL in the top 5%. If anything, they noted, WL might be too conservative in the budget process. The Audit Committee upon reviewing the results, believed the administrative audit was sufficient and further (expensive) audits were not warranted.
Brian Stevenson asked at the BOA meeting about the requirement for a financial audit by the State of Missouri. Answer by Mayor Bos - The State does not require a financial audit and the City has complied with financial statements as required.
Approval of the 2007 audit was tabled by the BOA on a motion by Alderman Hoy, with White and DeJong in favor of tabling, Finn Nay. Apparently Alderman Hoy did not get a copy of the audit to review prior to the BOA meeting.
A Point of Order. In the past (I can speak for the last 5 years) the audit was presented to the BOA by the audit firm. The aldermen and mayor were able to question the firm regarding the findings and results (some years it has been lively) . This year the Audit Committee received the report instead, giving the BOA no opportunity to interact with Miller and the final report. I pointed out to the Mayor and the Board this usurped the authority and responsibility of the elected officials of the City. There is nothing in the City Code that gives that authority and responsibility to the Audit Committee.
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6 comments:
A clean bill of financial health is certainly not what I heard in the whisper mill! It appears the duo has become a trio.
Sorry to say that there were probably some disappointed people. They got elected to fix a problem that wasn't there.
Just because we are told nothing was done illegally doesn't mean the new city officials are not fixing a problem. Simply stated they are fixing a problem not something done illegally. You can waste $50,000 on trips to Costco for toilet paper (just a fictitious number) and not have done anything that would be flagged in an audit, if there are receipts for $50,000 worth of TP. We have all seen (if you've been here long enough) illegal things get done by a mayor and then covered up. Seem some document shredding by a previous mayor comes to mind!
To anonymous shredder: I shred my credit card bills and junk mail, guess I have something to hide too? Really, if someone has an allegation, come forward and make it, on the record. I assume anonymous "heard" this, not saw it. Harkens back to when Mrs Gross was sending "your neighbor" post cards. Lots of folks willing to back stab and promote malicious rumors...what say you anonymous?
The Costco analogy is just dumb. Saving the community money (not wasting) instead of having products delivered by an office store (as was said at the forum) is neither a problem nor illegal, obviously. But to state it in your world, I bet we saved about a million dollars "(just a fictitious number)".
8/9/08-Anonymous -- First let me say that I heard about the document shredding years ago not during the recent elections. From what I understand many people discussed Mayor York and a few others shredding documents. This should not be "NEWS" to any of us that have been here over 6 years. Lets get real and stop trying to complain about the current mayor. There have been problems in this city over 10 years, they didn't start when Jerry Bos took over. Let's see this for what it is, the Castle Club wants everything and they want it now, so to anyone who disagrees they want to get rid of them.
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