The Gainesville Audit Committee received a Wednesday update on the ongoing reviews taking place across the city.
The city auditor’s office finished the second phase of the continuous auditing process, and staff presented the report. Interim City Auditor Brecka Anderson also said that management has responded to the 18 findings from a state auditor report. Of those findings, the city has marked 12 as complete with six in progress.
In the continuous auditing process, staff reviewed purchase cards, and since phase 1, 185 cards have been closed. The city began cracking down on the cards earlier this year.
The auditor’s report found no incorrect purchases based on the 106 selected reviews and said that city staff remains ahead of schedule for the proposed changes to the purchase card system. Anderson said the major report on the purchasing cards and travel reimbursements will come after phase 3, expected during the first quarter of 2024.
On the state auditor report, Anderson said the city has given responses and the state auditor is in an active follow-up process.
The city finished many of the findings recently and resolved five findings by sunsetting the Reichert House. City Manager Cynthia Curry decided to place Ironwood Golf Course on a management watch, leaving the finding on the course in progress for now.
The auditor’s office listed expected deadlines for other in-progress items like indirect cost recovery between GRU and the general government (early 2024), employee evaluations (June 30) and budget management practices (the final quarter of 2023).
Gainesville Regional Utilities’ (GRU) level of debt remains in progress along with the annual transfer from the utility to the general government. However, the City Commission has set a formula to regulate that transfer.
The City Commission approved a plan in May to trim GRU’s debt by $315 million over the next decade. If accomplished, GRU will increase its equity to 30%— a goal set by bond rating agencies.
The Gainesville City Commission is such a joke and embarrassment to the citizens of this community. They can always be counted on to waste, or misappropriate, taxpayer funds.
Thanks to the demands and oversight of the State of Florida the delusional members of the commission now must begin trimming or cutting their fairly land programs and the never ending drain on the financial wellbeing of Gainesville Regional Utilities.
Maybe someday the voters will come down off of their drug of choice high and vote these people out of office. Until then, thank you to the state officials for your support, oversight, and demands that have resulted in a tiny, but hopefully growing, breath of fresh air.
Those poor folks having to address audit findings, many first reported by the city auditor they fired in 2019 then reported by the state auditor’s office. They are stalling, of course, on cuts necessary to comply with the JLAC direction and spending $250k (for starters, will probably waste much more) to fight the bill on the governor’s desk. They secretly launched a malicious text and email scheme to turn people against it and have just increased property taxes, GRU rates, and fire fees that I’m sure citizens will just love. They also tired the city to an unnecessary solar contract for many years. There’s no way to sugarcoat this: the mayor and city commission have continued to act radical, woke and untrustworthy! They should all be removed!