The much anticipated audit of operations at the Fairgrounds and the Recreation department will indeed be available Monday and its my intent to make sure the Council, staff and others receive it simultaneously. I had a call Friday afternoon from the auditor saying she expected to have it ready Monday and will call when it is. The Council meets at 6Pm, so that is as good a time as any to distribute it.
The report is a thorough look at the issues that recently came to light and contains recommended changes in procedures and practices. Accountant Laurie Podvin conducted the audit and will meet with Council at a future date to discuss the findings and answer specific questions once everyone has digested the report.
At Monday's Council meeting, lawmakers will discuss revisions to the water rate schedules, decide on a tax levy and take up the matter of beer concessions at the Fairgrounds.
Council is also continuing to work on reviewing applications for City Clerk.
Watertown Daily Times Audit of rec department due on Monday
5 comments:
Do you need someone to audit the rest of the city finances now?
Or is this just a freak exception where standard accounting practices are being ignored?
What difference does it make? You guys had a big study done a couple years ago and that money dump recommended getting rid of the office manager position in Gene Hayes's DPW office. You ignored that, instead laying off a position in Parks and Rec. Now DPW acts surprised when there is a problem at PandRec. Duh? Why the studies and the audit when all you are going to do is ignore the results? This is Gene Hayes's responsibility. It is caused by a dysfunctional office. Just stop in and say hello. Better yet, just send an email. They don't talk to each other in person, although they work together, supposedly. And this is supposed to be a problem caused by UNION work? Baloney.
Jeff, what is your opinion of these opinions that seem to assert that the recreation department should be autonomous? It sounds ignorant to me. I cannot imagine any company that would run like that. Even on a large scale of consolidated holdings, you would still have a someone that oversees that things are done properly.
Maybe when the recreation dept. woes are squared away the city can look into all of the businesses being run out of residential addresses. You can scarcely drive down a street without seeing someone who has a construction company or a landscaping company being operated out of residential zoned address.
This is unfair to the neighboring homeowners whose property values are sure to be affected at resale time! C'mon city, it's either zoned residential or not!!!
9:07 I haven't seen anyone suggest that Parks and Rec be run on its own. Not sure where you got that. Some people are concerned that the dysfunction rests with DPW, run by Mr Hayes. It is common practice to blame the guy going out the door for problems in an organization. It's easy to do and no one pays any price. We can do that. StCroix will be silenced and Hayes will slip away with no responsibility. But there is too much smoke coming out of that dept for there to be no fire. It is the centerpiece for unprofessionalism. People do not speak to each other. How can one employee, who is responsible for assisting with the operation of other offices such as water and parks and rec, do a job when they do not even have a driver's license? How do some people take comp time off when according to contract comp time does not exist? Now the proposed solution is to purchase a new computer system to monitor payments to parks and rec, again without involving the employees who will be directly involved. What kind of management is this? This decision has already been made. Its a chance to spend some of that slush money. The Times will figure that out pretty soon and the job will be dropped in some overworked person's lap while the dysfuntion and lack of communication continues. But the taxpayers will have purchased some new equipment. Hayes should learn to run his office as a professional. That is far preferable to buying things we do not need.
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