12/03/1996 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes of 12/3/96 documents will be shared with any Council member who wishes to review them. Regarding this issue, Mayor Boyle added that before the report was aired on the 11 0' clock news, the television station introduced it at the 6 0' clock news and said something to the effect that nobody was willing to talk about it. The Mayor sent an e-mail to the station in protest because not only had he been interviewed but so had the Law Director and Building Commissioner. In addition, the station had received a letter from the Safety Director. It should also be noted that the news director told the Mayor that Channel 3 has a policy of never airing the same thing more than one time. Yet, this is the third time this story has aired. Finance Director Burns: 1) The State Auditor has released the 1995 audit. The audit is unqualified, and there are no findings and no significant violations of code. Regarding audits of previous years, the Finance Director feels there were occasions when the State Auditor's staff did not examine sufficient documentations to justify the opinions that were made. For the 1989 and 1990 audits, the Auditor's staff did not take the time to examine the work done by the director and the office of Gary Fink & Associates. Working together, they were able to piece together what had occurred during that time and indicated what was needed to fix and support the financial statements. However, since Arthur Young's work papers were destroyed, the Auditor's staff did not bother to look at the work that had been done by Mr. Burns and Gary Fink & Associates. It seemed that they didn't care about the adverse affect this action could have on the city's bond ratings. In 1991 and 1992, it also seemed that the Auditor's staff was in a hurry to wrap things up. Again, they did not examine sufficient documentations to justify their opinions. This was subsequently proved because, when they did the 1993 and 1994 audits, they had to go back to 1989 to look at invoices and substantiations for work that should have been done before they released anything for 1991 and 1992. While the 1993 and 1994 audits were being completed, the Auditor released a memo listing ten items they said had not been provided by the Finance Director. Items one through eight were basically the revisions of the financial statements and the footnotes which could not be done because the auditors had not given the revisions to the director. Items nine and ten had been requested from third parties and had not been received. The director did complete the revised financial statements before the Auditor's May 28th deadline. The director and the city bond counsel took exception to a citation in the 1993 and 1994 audits, and their opinion was eventual proven to be true. Although the mistake was made by the Auditor of State's office, the city was charged to fix the mistake. With the audits complete through 1995, the city must now begin the task of choosing the auditor for the 1996 audit. Mr. Limpert asked Mr. Burns whether he felt the Auditor of State's office had been "unprofessional." Mr. Burns replied that there had been changes of personnel in the State Auditor's office and the Cleveland office which contributed to the problems of supervision and planning. However, he feels the biggest problem is the attitude on the part of the State Auditor's office that they can dictate anything they wish and the city has to live by it. President Boehmer reported that the Christmas tree in Council Chambers had been decorated by Tiger Cub Pack 52 from Forest School. The boys did a great job, and Council appreciates the holiday decorations. 4