This Just In!

Tilghman Blames City Staff For Missing Annual Audit==================================================Daily Times, The (Salisbury, MD)-February 7, 2007 Author: Salisbury Daily Times, Laren Hughes By Laren Hughes Hall Staff Writer

SALISBURY -- Mayor Barrie Parsons Tilghman blamed city staff for failing to communicate three extensions of a required annual audit to the City Council and high staff turnover for missing the state's deadline altogether.

"I take full responsibility," Tilghman said Tuesday.

City Administrator John Pick said contributing to the delay is that auditors are attempting to reconcile the value of one of the city's capital improvement assets, which he could not name.

City staff also failed to notify the mayor and council of the three extension requests, Tilghman said.

"Unfortunately, that wasn't done. (Pick) simply forgot," she said. "It wasn't done and I apologize, but certainly every time an extension was requested (Finance Director Pam Oland and Pick) did discuss it at length."

Only one of the three extensions has been approved by the State Office of Legislative Audits, according to a Feb. 5 letter from Tilghman to Council President Mike Dunn.

This is the second consecutive year the city has failed to meet the deadline, Oland said. Because of the extension requests, the city could face additional fees beyond the $42,000 initially charged by the auditing firm of Trice, Geary and Myers, said Oland.

"We are very close to having the numbers and then we have to do the financial reporting," she said. "It's not the easiest thing in the world. It's been a challenge, but we're working through it and we plan to get the audit done as soon as possible."

But Councilwoman Debbie Campbell said too much time has lapsed already, making it difficult for her to consider approval of the Capital Improvement Plan, a tool that allows city officials to outline their financial needs for the next five years.

"We have no idea what we can or can't afford," Campbell said. "We don't even have the audit for fiscal year 2006 and we're talking about fiscal year 2008. It's unheard of."

Pick said the CIP is a planning device and its adoption does not commit the city to include any of the items in next year's budget.

"The benefit of the CIP is that you're looking out beyond just one year and looking into the future to see the capital needs the city has," he said. "The City Council can adopt the CIP and then, if it turns out the resources are not available, we can adjust the budget accordingly."

Three employees of the city's finance department and three auditors from Trice, Geary and Myers are working to complete the audit by the end of the month or beginning of March, Oland said.

The extended deadline is at the end of February.

"Our audit is close to 80 pages," she said. "You can't churn out 80 pages worth of documents in a day."

Despite the staffing issues, the mayor said she believes the audit will be completed and presented to the City Council prior to the deadline.
"Everything that could happen to cause problems did," Tilghman said.

"But I am confident (Oland) has done everything that needs to be done to make sure going forward that everything is in order."

llhughes@dmg.gannett.com 410-749-7171, Ext. 216 Section: LOCAL NEWS - INSIDEPage: 1Record Number: slb35735725Copyright (c) The Daily Times. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of Gannett Co., Inc. by NewsBank, inc.

==================================================Annual City Council Audit==================================================Daily Times, The (Salisbury, MD)-March 2, 2007 Author: Salisbury Daily Times, Candice Evans By Candice Evans Staff Writer

SALISBURY -- A large weight was lifted off the shoulders of city staff Wednesday when they presented the completed annual audit to the City Council.

Three employees of the city's finance department and three auditors from Trice, Geary and Myers worked on the 80-page document designed to evaluate the city's expenses after being given the extended deadline last month, officials said.

Mayor Barrie Parsons Tilghman said high staff turnover was to blame for missing the state's deadline on Nov. 1, forcing the city to apply for three extension requests.

Officials said this is the second consecutive year the city has failed to meet the deadline.

"Whatever could go wrong appeared to do just that," Tilghman said.

She said they were down three senior staffers in the finance department throughout audit completion that greatly contributed to the city being late.

"The circumstances made it very difficult to complete the audit," Tilghman said.

However, City Councilwoman Debbie Campbell said even though the audit has been sent to the state, the city staff neglected to include a management letter and a financial report.

"We're still missing two documents--one (financial report) is supposed to be a useful tool," she said.

According to earlier reports, City Council members were concerned that the amount of time elapsed would make it difficult to consider approval of the Capital Improvement Plan -- a tool that allows city officials to outline their financial needs for the next five years.

"It's like we haven't balanced our checkbook for a year," Campbell said.

The city will also be facing additional fees because of the extension requests, said Finance Director Pam Oland.

Officials said this will go beyond the $42,000 initially charged by the auditing firm of Trice, Geary and Myers.

As to how much money the city will have to pay, Oland said a figure has not been finalized yet.

"No amount has been presented," she said.

Tilghman is confident that audit completion should not be a problem when they start working on the next audit in September.

Oland feels that having a full staff this year will tremendously help the extensive process.

"It's not something that can be done in a week's time," Oland said. "It's a several month process from start to finish."

Section: LOCAL NEWS - INSIDEPage: 1Record Number: slb36542983Copyright (c) The Daily Times. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of Gannett Co., Inc. by NewsBank, inc.