It has been almost eight years since the City of St. Louis was audited, and the police department has not been audited since the city regained control over it from the state in 2013. Some citizens have launched a petition to change that, and now the Board of Aldermen may consider voting for a comprehensive audit.
At an aldermanic committee meeting on December 14, Alderman Joe Vaccaro of the 23rd Ward argued for passing a resolution that he sponsored to launch an independent audit of all city departments. He was met with varying levels of support from his colleagues, many of whom were concerned that the cost associated with an audit might necessitate a cut to city services.
Alderwoman Carol Howard of 14th Ward said it might be more fiscally responsible to consider the finding from the most recent audit in 2010 and implement recommendations from that time than conduct a new audit, which would cost around $2 million.
“We don’t have, really, $2 million now,” Howard said.
Vaccaro said the bill he introduced was a response to public outcry that he has seen not just in his ward, but in nearly every neighborhood in the city.
“This is not about an old audit,” Vaccaro said. “This is about a demand.”
Vaccaro said he thought it was unlikely that conducting an audit would undercover fiscal wrongdoing among city employees, but that going through the process and making any necessary changes could increase public trust in the city government.
That public demand for an audit has taken the form of a local organization, Audit STL, which has been collecting signatures on a petition calling for a full audit of the city government.
Matt Carol-Schmidt, the treasurer of the grassroots group Audit STL, spoke at the meeting and said group’s efforts had been a response to an audit of the police department released in May by Comptroller Darlene Green. The audit found that the police department repeatedly violated the law and went over budget on overtime pay by almost $5 million between July 1, 2015 and June 30, 2016.
“There is no oversight review to control overtime pay budget, therefore, no incentive for section leaders to stay within the budget,” the audit stated.
The department spent $13.4 million on overtime, instead of the budgeted $8.5 million amount. This is because management of overtime was “inadequate,” it stated. Green also found that hundreds of thousands of hours of police officer overtime could not be verified.
Carol-Schmidt said the group wanted a more comprehensive audit of the city’s spending on public safety to be conducted by State Auditor Nicole Galloway, in order to ensure an independent party looks for other evidence of wrongdoing.
“I think Alderman Vaccaro and I are of different views about what we might find, but he’s right that if we don’t find anything, the public is going to feel better about [city government],” Carol-Schmidt said.
Galloway makes the final decision on whether to conduct an audit, so that investigation could be prompted by either the collection of 6,527 signatures from St. Louis citizens or by a board resolution.
“If we can do this together, we’d rather do it through you guys, because it’s cold and I don’t like collecting signature,” Carol-Schmidt said.
Several other city officials also spoke about their views on the resolution, including Budget Director Paul W. Payne. Payne said one of the most significant findings from the 2010 audit have not been implemented.
“It wasn’t a financial finding at all, it was more, better communication,” Payne said.
That was the issue of the computer system used in the comptroller’s office, which was installed in the early 1980s and, according to the audit, “does not provide information necessary to efficiently operate the city. The current system does not always provide information needed by city offices, and as a result, several city offices are maintaining separate financial records at additional expense to the city.”
This system is still in place today. In fact, the city paid $1.5 million to install a new computer system, but they never received it, Howard said. St. Louis officials entered into a contract with software company New World, which was paid up-front for a new system they never delivered. New World has since been bought out by Tyler Technologies, she said.
Howard suggested the Board of Alderman could consider spending the money to upgrade that system, rather than conducting another audit. She also said spending millions on a comprehensive audit could lead to a cut in services, including garbage collection, that her constituents already complain are underfunded.
“If I’m going to have to sacrifice city services to do an audit, it does not make sense to me,” Howard said.
There has been some confusion over whether the Board of Aldermen has the authority to request an audit through a resolution. City Counselor Julian Bush said in a letter to Alderwoman Megan Green of the 15th Ward that there is nothing in the city charter that “withdraws this power” to ask the state auditor to perform an audit.
Audit STL has said that whether the aldermen pass the resolution or not, they will continue to gather signatures to ensure that an audit happens. And they are well on their way to hitting the mark.
