JLAC to hear report on audit of City of Gainesville on February 9
BY JENNIFER CABRERA
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The Joint Legislative Auditing Committee (JLAC) of the Florida Legislature is scheduled to hold a hearing on the Auditor General’s operational audit of the City of Gainesville on Thursday, February 9. The staff of the Auditor General’s Office will present the audit findings, and representatives of the City have been requested to attend.
The meeting will begin at 2:00 p.m., and the presentation is the first item on the agenda.
The audit was directed by the Committee based on a request from Senator Keith Perry and Representative Chuck Clemons after they received concerns from multiple constituents.
The audit was released in November 2021, and the findings are summarized here. The audit found that Gainesville Regional Utilities’ debt levels were “significantly higher than comparable municipal utilities” and that the City did not have a consistent methodology for determining the amount of the annual General Fund Transfer from the utility to the general government. The audit also found that the City did not “effectively oversee Reichert House, Inc. operations” and also found some deficiencies in the City’s financial record-keeping.
The release from JLAC stated that the Committee’s staff are “continuing to be contacted by citizens with concerns” and that the Auditor General will return to the City later this year to determine the extent to which the City has corrected the 18 findings reported in the original audit report.
Committee meetings may be viewed on the Florida Channel.
A copy of the Auditor General’s audit report is accessible here.
And they voted themselves a raise…that should have to explained on February 9th with their accounting deficiencies! …they should not be rewarded for a Moody’s downgrade. The Governor should step in and reverse that raise and instead give them a salary decrease…you don’t reward bad performance.
Wait until they are ordered to refund all the surcharges they have fleeced from captive county customers! We deserve reperations for overcharges due to mis management, political agendas at all cost, and total reckess disreguard to finacial accountability. All at the bidding ofGville voterstaxation without representation .We should all show up at the meeting and insist they are removed from GRU and begin the refund process and are removed from any funds being transfered to GOG immediately and suspended from running GRU.
Will there be other Brazilian butt lifts we hadn’t heard of yet?
Maybe the face mask Sako wears is the bandage for her buttlift…
Hopefully the state auditors will recognize current city leadership is comprised of some of the past characters who have made almost every attempt possible and used any excuse to prevent governmental audits. Next question is who they have hired to “doctor” the books for them this time and pass the blame to. I guess we’ll find out once the audit comes back and the city begins looking for new auditors and accountants.
Liberals, they want expect us to believe this is a “highly” educated community.
Highest utility rates and now highest debt levels too! No surprise here after all it’s not their money they’re wasting is it?
The City’s response to the initial Reichert House “fraud” audit report was to “fire the auditor”, who then was corralled by Senator Keith Perry and Representative Chuck Clemons to testify to the JLAC hearing in Tallahassee. This update might be interesting! Maybe they can fire the auditor again? Or themselves?
Not sure they have an auditor to fire now as she just resigned like the other charters who were either fired or quit. Fat Ward tried to make all of the temporary placeholders (all unqualified except the law office) permanent so he’d have suck-ups to actually do what he asks. Good thing it didn’t work. Best Idea, wait until the state installs competent oversight, then hire new charter officers.
Hey John. Tomorrow the citycomm will officially “negotiate” all city interim positions to a full contract that are outrageous and the city can’t afford. City manager $300K and she’s not the highest. Golden parachutes and unjustified perks. Hold on to your wallet and/or your purse Gainesville… if you can.
Wow! That’s outrageous! Didn’t know that. Did see WCJB is reporting they plan to remove government auditing standards from the audit requirements so the city auditor will have no standards to adhere to and no oversight from a peer review. Simply disgusting.
That’s incorrect. The standards were just moved to a different section of the ordinance.