"Remember well the $ ½ million plus that was stolen from Port Orange City coffers"
From: Ted Noftall [mailto:Ted@TedNoftall.com]
Sent: Tuesday, January 14, 2014 2:41 PM
To: Kisela, Greg
Cc: Bob Ford; Kennedy, Dennis; don@amlsfl.com; Drew Bastian; Green, Allen; Corey Berman; Ivan Cosimi; Jack Wiles; Joe Fazzie; Laney, Sonya; Mark Schaefer
Subject: Preparing Monthly Bank Reconciliations is Non-Negotiable
Manager Kisela,
During last evening’s A&B Advisory Board meeting you never once disclosed to the board that for a large portion of 2013 the City bank accounts were not reconciled on a timely basis despite intensive questioning from several board members on the very topic of cash and bank.
Indeed failure to disclose pertinent information or respond fully to board member questions has been your signature treatment of this board. Your lack of cooperation is no longer tolerable, And at Council’s meeting on Tuesday evening I will so advise Council and request their direction.
I will also discuss at length Wayne Saunders disclosure to me after the A&B meeting had ended, to the effect that after ’Julia’s ‘ departure from Finance in April 2013, the City’s bank account reconciliations were not completed or checked and approved until I believe he said sometime in September or October because your replacement employee ‘ Rose ‘ was unable to perform those reconciliations successfully for lack of expertise.
While I am not sure when you or Saunders became aware that monthly bank reconciliations were not being performed, Stella Gurnee had to have known from the outset because according to Saunders she is responsible for checking and approving those reconciliation. Such Non-feasance of the part of you, Saunders and Gurnee is puzzling considering you are all salaried employees and are supposedly working whatever hours that are required to ‘get the job done’. Aren’t monthly bank reconciliations part of the job. Such behavior is totally unacceptable and it left taxpayers vulnerable for cash misappropriations. Those of us who have been here longer than 5 minutes remember well the $ ½ million plus that was stolen from City coffers by Lori Weiss and Deseri Keathan because of lax controls.
In that regard I am requesting a statement from you stating the date on which each months bank statement reconciliation was prepared and approved for FY 2013.
I would also request a copy of the bank reconciliations for the first three months of FY 2014 along with a screen shot of the GL accounts to which they are being reconciled to ensure they are now being prepared on a timely basis.
That Council and the A&B Advisory Board were jollied along all last summer with repeated assurances of improved internal controls when the City bank accounts were not even being reconciled is hard to comprehend without the word deceitful coming to mind.
The lack of both internal control and information reporting to Council evident from this bank reconciliation disclosure is alarming and I trust this request will receive your complete and timely cooperation .
Ted Noftall
Chair
Audit and Budget Advisory Board
Wayne: See me on this request.
Greg Kisela
City Manager