Alderman questions audit delay

At least one alderman says he has a lot of questions concerning the backlog of audits not completed since 2017 and he’s looking for direct answers.

Ward 1 Alderman Justin Clearman said he expected Tuesday night’s regular city board meeting to be tense.

“I believe there are going to be some very tough questions answered,” Clearman said. 

A five-year audit backlog came to light during the budgeting process last month after a Neshoba Democrat reporter asked for the most recent audit during a public meeting.

Aldermen went on to approve an $11 million budget that included a pay raise for non-elected city employees and a 1-mill tax increase.

A required letter of engagement was never signed by the city to do financial audits, the accounting firm Watkins, Ward and Stafford said after the audit issue was exposed.

Marsha McDonald, a partner in the firm, said the company not only never received a signed letter of engagement from the city but also received only a minimal amount of information from the City Clerk to do an audit.

Clearman said he wants to question City Clerk Nikki M. Walton, but she apparently was not expected to be at the meeting last night due to illness.

McDonald said last month their requests to Walton were repeated.

“We did an information request to the City Clerk for what would have been needed to perform the audit; however, only a minimal amount of that information request was satisfied,” McDonald wrote in a letter to the city withdrawing.

Clearman was adamant about getting answers.

“I’ve got a lot of questions to ask tonight and I need a bunch of answers to those questions and not a head nod or a smile,” Clearman said. “I need direct answers from the City Clerk and if I don’t get what I’m asking for I’m going to be very upset.”

Clearman, a Republican, is new to the board. 

“I just don’t think that us new guys coming in were given all the information we needed to be able to go into the fiscal year in the way we are and it is just very disappointing,” Clearman said. “I’ve got a notebook full of questions to ask and I want answers to them. The more we delay on getting those answers the worse off we are. I’m ready to find out what is going to happen.”

The latest audit available to the public shows the city of Philadelphia ended fiscal 2016 with a $264,963 surplus. At the time, it was the third surplus reported since the Mayor and Board of Aldermen doubled taxes in 2014 to help pay for new parks.

Tristan Rowell of Rea, Shaw, Giffin & Stuart, LLP, Certified Public Accountants told officials in September 2017 when the 2016 audit was delivered that “overall, the big picture is the city seems to be in good shape.”

The city of Philadelphia has not completed audits for Fiscal 2018, 2019 or 2020.

The city has since hired the Pearl accounting firm of Windham and Lacy to catch the city up on audits.

Clearman said he looked forward to hearing what the new firm had to say about the audits.