The Lindsay City Council heard input from two different perspectives Monday night regarding the best way to approach an investigative audit to answer questions council members have about city operations in the last two years.
The council has discussed securing an investigative audit from an outside firm in recent meetings. During their Sept. 13 regular meeting they voted to pursue an audit through the private auditing firm that conducts the city’s annual audits.
At Monday night’s regular meeting, Lindsay resident Skip Mitchell asked the council to seek the audit through the Oklahoma State Auditor and Investigator’s office rather than a private firm. Mitchell, who has sought citizen-petition-driven special audits in several communities in Southern Oklahoma in the last three years, said he has been approached by concerned Lindsay residents asking him to do the same in Lindsay.
He told the council the SAI’s office is better equipped to investigate issues beyond just financial records, including policy and legal issues and potential charter violations, and therefore is the most appropriate choice for investigating the type of questions the council has.
Under state statute, the city’s governing body can ask the SAI’s office to conduct an investigative audit of the city. Citizens can also petition for an investigative audit by the SAI’s office. A citizen petition would require signatures from at least 10% of the registered voters in the City of Lindsay.
Mitchell asked the council to work with him to create a list of concerns for the SAI’s office to look at.
“I’m asking you to sit down with us, it keeps the cost down. If we do it through a citizens petition, the auditor’s attorneys are involved and they’ll stay involved to the end,” Mitchell said. “The decision you have to make is whether the citizens are going to pay for one audit or two, because I have committed today to bringing this investigative audit through the state auditor.”
The council also heard from Frank Crawford, president of Crawford and Associates, P.C., a well-known governmental accounting firm based in Oklahoma City.
Crawford said after looking at a list of “a dozen or so” topics or items of concern provided by the city, he would agree that the State Auditor’s office might be the best avenue for the city.
“They’re really not items that I would say an auditing firm or an accounting firm would be doing. They’re much more like possible policy violations, possible charter violations, possible indications of nepotism or favoritism,” Crawford said. “There’s very few things here that are actually truly accounting or financial audit inclined.”
Crawford said questions of policy and judgement are very difficult to audit.
He also told the council the first step to approaching the SAI’s office is going to be setting a narrow and detailed scope of the items to be audited.
“You can’t just hand them a list and say, ‘We want you to look at everything so-and-so did over a three-year period.’ They will laugh you out of the State Auditor’s office,” Crawford said. “They have to have a specific list of what is it that you suspect occurred and what do you want them to look for. And based on that list and how many of those things you put together, that dictates how much you pay for the audit.”
Crawford said many of the items on the list have a legal aspect to them, regarding whether certain actions or policies are legal, as well as legal ramifications and recourse for certain actions. He agreed most accounting firms that conduct municipal audits aren’t equipped to handle those types of issues, but the SAI’s office does have a legal division that can look at those things.
Audits through the SAI’s office typically cost between $60,000 and $80,000, depending on the scope of the audit, Crawford said, and it can often take up to a year for the auditor’s office to begin the audit.
Crawford did say the cost of an SAI’s audit is probably cheaper than the cost of a private firm equipped to handle the type of investigative audit the city is considering.
Crawford advised the council they will have to decide if the cost of an SAI audit is worth the potential benefit.
“If you are going to spend $75,000 to uncover $20,000 of misdoings, that doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense,” Crawford said. “Unless, it’s going to put everybody on the path looking forward. If you have to pay $75,000 so everybody can get the past behind them and start looking forward … that might be worth $75,000.”
He also advised council members to try to narrow the focus of an audit.
“I would encourage you to focus your energies and money on going forward as much as you can by clearing up as little as you need to in the past that will get everybody on the same page.”
The council took no specific action but did discuss working to narrow the scope of items to be investigated during a future workshop or meeting.
The council also voted during Monday’s meeting to reject a proposal to move emergency service dispatching for Lindsay to the Garvin County 911 Center for weekend calls only.
City Manager Rebecca Niernberger explained the city currently has four dispatchers working 12-hour shifts to cover calls. The city has paid over $25,000 in overtime to dispatchers in the last six months, Niernberger said.
The proposal to temporarily allow the county dispatch center to handle weekend calls would allow Lindsay dispatchers to work eight-hour shifts Monday through Friday and save the city overtime pay, which Niernberger said could then be used to raise wages across all emergency service departments.
Niernberger said the annual cost for the county 911 center to handle calls is estimated to be around $15,000.
“This is a business decision based on numbers, on how do we effect change, and what’s good for the whole city,” Niernberger said. “Everyone keeps their job, the response time is faster, and it’s a way to cut overtime, so that’s what this proposal is about.”
Council members and citizens expressed concerns about response times being longer if calls are not dispatched locally, as well as whether Lindsay-based dispatchers would be better equipped to instruct first responders since they are more familiar with city streets and addresses.
Niernberger said the proposal should cut response times, since calls currently made to 911 go to the county dispatch center and are then transferred to Lindsay for dispatch. Under the proposal those calls would be dispatched directly from the county dispatch center.
Councilman Greg Henderson questioned Niernberger about why the proposed move would be temporary. Niernberger said the city has struggled with hiring, training and retaining dispatchers in the past. She said once the city can fully staff the dispatch department, weekend calls could return to city dispatch without the city incurring extra overtime costs.
Council member Robin Staggs made a motion to retain all dispatch services in Lindsay. The council voted unanimously in favor of the motion.