February 3, 2010 City Administrator Anthony Cox: 2009 Audit Is Still Not Ready

During the City Administrator's report yesterday, Anthony Cox told the Mayor and Councilmembers that the 2009 final audit is still not ready.

At the January 19th meeting, a preliminary/draft audit was given to council. The final audit was supposed to be ready no later than yesterday. Cox gave no explanation for the delay, and neither the Mayor nor any councilmember asked for an explanation.

The current auditors (Craine, Thompson & Jones) have been late with the audit for many years. The 2008 audit (for the period 7/1/07-6/30/08) was due by December 31, 2008. It was provided some five months later, prompting ex-City Administrator Jim Crumley to recommend in May 2009 that the city solicit bids for new auditors. Click here. Jim Crumley and I disagreed on many things, but that was one time when he was right.

After Jim made that proposal, the auditors blamed the lateness of the 2008 audit on being unable to get timely reports from MUS.  Craine, Thompson & Jones then promised that the 2009 audit (for the period 7/1/08-6/30/09) would be provided in a timely manner, assuring the council that the 2009 audit would be ready no later than December 31, 2009.

That self-imposed December 31, 2009, deadline wasn't met. January 2010 has passed by. And now we're into February 2010 and no final audit.

While a timely audit AND a new set of auditing eyes are still needed, my guess is that there will again be someone else to blame, all will be forgiven, and the Mayor and Council will carry on as before.