State Comptroller to Audit City's Summer Departments

New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli's office today sent a letter to the City of Long Beach announcing an audit of seasonal departments, a move that comes at the request of the new Democrat administration.  

According the letter singed by Ira McCracken, the chief examiner for the Division of Local Government and School Accountability at the comptroller’s office, the audit will cover policies and procedures related to internal controls of cash transactions in various summer seasonal departments. The audit will examine cash receipts, journals, ledgers, bank statements and reconciliations, deposit slips, receipt forms, other records, reports and documents, and will start in the “near future,” the letter reads.

The new Democrat administration, which took office in January, wrote DiNapoli's office with a request to look into the city's finances. “As a new administration, we have serious and significant concerns regarding the city’s internal controls and cash controls, particularly as they relate to our summer season activities,” Schnirman wrote in the letter, dated Feb. 21.

The audit comes just days after the city announced a projected $10.2 million deficit in the general fund for the 2011-12 fiscal year, down from $107,000 last July. Schnirman said the city will use a short-term budget note that the city borrowed last November to close the deficit gap by $1.5 million, leaving a $8.7 million deficit to cover in the proposed 2012-13 budget by April.

In a statement the city released Thursday, Schnirman, Council President Fran Adelson, Vice President Len Torres and Councilman Scott Mandel were quoted to the effect of both welcoming the audit and underscoring the deficit. 

“As a new administration, seeking this assistance and expertise from the State Comptroller’s Division of Local Government is one of our top priorities,” Adelson stated.

Torres and Mandel were quoted on their “concerns” the administration contends were due to past administrations’ “lack of safeguards” in handling cash, as well as “questionable practices” regarding the receipt of funds.  

“Given the inherited fiscal crisis, we requested this audit to examine exactly what has been going on and what reforms should be undertaken,” Mandel stated.