7 ms·

Captain Obvious checking in, it's more like they really don't want an independent auditor. People focusing on their compensation are not looking deep enough, t

Captain Obvious checking in, it's more like they really don't want an independent auditor. People focusing on their compensation are not looking deep enough, there's probably some preferred vendor or other grifting going on that leads back to a family member.

throwawaygh 5y ago
The city has an independent auditor. It's a mid-sized firm in a sizable metro with a bunch of CPAs. Literally no incentive to lie on an audit of a tiny township with a miniscule budget.
- michaelt 5y ago
  The likes on Enron, Worldcom and Bear Stearns all had "independent" audits. Everyone knows auditors only have the capacity to look at a small sample of records; and that difficult, demanding auditors don't get appointed next year.
- somenewaccount1 5y ago
  CPA's will only verify that the funds were indeed spent as reported. Basically, that the ledger is balanced and funds weren't outright stolen. They won't identify that specific vendors, possibly related to the supervisors, are over paid for thier services.
  - throwawaygh 5y ago
    - cmeacham98 5y ago
      "Interfund transfers": almost 50% increase to $1.3million; elaborated on nowhere else in the budget as far as I can tell Now I'm not saying there definitely is foul play here (realistically, more likely than not there isn't), but that's why the auditor position exists - to find out
    - taylorfinley 5y ago
      Okay. Bottom of page 4, "50 gallon sprayer, $5000" Here's a 50 gallon sprayer from Northern Tool, cost $489. Where'd the other $4500 go? https://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200722048_200722048 https://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200722048_20... Edit: let's give them the benefit of the doubt, here's the most expensive one, still coming in $2000 under budget https://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200675174_200675174 https://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200675174_20...
      - throwawaygh 5y ago
        ...and there are also sprayers that cost over $7K. Was that money spent on a sprayer? Almost certainly yes. Who could check this? For that, I'm just going to repeat your own words back to you: > CPA's verify that the funds were indeed spent as reported And then ask again what possible incentive the accounting firm could have to lie.
        sgjohnson 5y ago
        Nobody at all suggested that the accounting firm has lied about anything.
        throwawaygh 5y ago
        So if the accounting firm didn't lie then the funds on the line item for the sprayer were spent on... a sprayer. Someone's gonna get a Pulitzer out of this thread!
        mschuster91 5y ago
        Going for an excessively above-market-price model is waste of taxpayer money. If there have been specific requirements why the standard model would not be sufficient, these exceptions should have been documented.
        throwawaygh 5y ago
- Aeolun 5y ago
  > miniscule budget $14 million?
s1artibartfast 5y ago
Maybe, maybe not. It is pretty wild that everyone assumes some financial conspiracy. I think it is at least as likely they just don't want random wackadoos adding to the bureaucracy.
- dhbanes 5y ago
  You don’t know much about how local government operates.
  - deelowe 5y ago
    I do. In small towns like this, it's not really money. They tend to just favor people they know. It's more bias or conservatism than corruption. Things are more comfortable when you're dealing with people you know. Sure people get favors and side business and such but in total, it doesn't really add up to a whole lot.
    - 3np 5y ago
      You just described corruption. Regardless of how many dollars it is about in the end. I can think of 0 valid reasons to ghost and undermine your elected auditors.
      - josefx 5y ago
        Did they ghost him or did he ghost them first? From what I can tell he had absolutely no idea about or even contact with the people he was supposed to audit/work with until long after the election had taken place. So he turns up one random day to do his job and is surprised that he isn't on the agenda. I repeat, he never even talked to these guys after his election, never checked in with them to even properly organize things. Instead he just assumed "they would know". > and undermine your elected auditors. Given how much he just assumed will happen and failed to properly plan and ensure will happen he is doing quite a good job at helping them with it. And after all that his idea of fixing things is to write a 20+ tweet complaint on twitter. If these people are as corrupt as some here think they must love that guy, they couldn't have found a more superficial incompetent guy for the job if they tried.

throwawaygh 5y ago

The city has an independent auditor. It's a mid-sized firm in a sizable metro with a bunch of CPAs. Literally no incentive to lie on an audit of a tiny township with a miniscule budget.

michaelt 5y ago
The likes on Enron, Worldcom and Bear Stearns all had "independent" audits. Everyone knows auditors only have the capacity to look at a small sample of records; and that difficult, demanding auditors don't get appointed next year.
somenewaccount1 5y ago
CPA's will only verify that the funds were indeed spent as reported. Basically, that the ledger is balanced and funds weren't outright stolen. They won't identify that specific vendors, possibly related to the supervisors, are over paid for thier services.
- throwawaygh 5y ago
  - cmeacham98 5y ago
    "Interfund transfers": almost 50% increase to $1.3million; elaborated on nowhere else in the budget as far as I can tell Now I'm not saying there definitely is foul play here (realistically, more likely than not there isn't), but that's why the auditor position exists - to find out
  - taylorfinley 5y ago
    Okay. Bottom of page 4, "50 gallon sprayer, $5000" Here's a 50 gallon sprayer from Northern Tool, cost $489. Where'd the other $4500 go? https://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200722048_200722048 https://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200722048_20... Edit: let's give them the benefit of the doubt, here's the most expensive one, still coming in $2000 under budget https://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200675174_200675174 https://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200675174_20...
    - throwawaygh 5y ago
      ...and there are also sprayers that cost over $7K. Was that money spent on a sprayer? Almost certainly yes. Who could check this? For that, I'm just going to repeat your own words back to you: > CPA's verify that the funds were indeed spent as reported And then ask again what possible incentive the accounting firm could have to lie.
      - sgjohnson 5y ago
        Nobody at all suggested that the accounting firm has lied about anything.
        throwawaygh 5y ago
        So if the accounting firm didn't lie then the funds on the line item for the sprayer were spent on... a sprayer. Someone's gonna get a Pulitzer out of this thread!
        mschuster91 5y ago
        Going for an excessively above-market-price model is waste of taxpayer money. If there have been specific requirements why the standard model would not be sufficient, these exceptions should have been documented.
        throwawaygh 5y ago
Aeolun 5y ago
> miniscule budget $14 million?

s1artibartfast 5y ago

Maybe, maybe not. It is pretty wild that everyone assumes some financial conspiracy. I think it is at least as likely they just don't want random wackadoos adding to the bureaucracy.

dhbanes 5y ago
You don’t know much about how local government operates.
- deelowe 5y ago
  I do. In small towns like this, it's not really money. They tend to just favor people they know. It's more bias or conservatism than corruption. Things are more comfortable when you're dealing with people you know. Sure people get favors and side business and such but in total, it doesn't really add up to a whole lot.
  - 3np 5y ago
    You just described corruption. Regardless of how many dollars it is about in the end. I can think of 0 valid reasons to ghost and undermine your elected auditors.
    - josefx 5y ago
      Did they ghost him or did he ghost them first? From what I can tell he had absolutely no idea about or even contact with the people he was supposed to audit/work with until long after the election had taken place. So he turns up one random day to do his job and is surprised that he isn't on the agenda. I repeat, he never even talked to these guys after his election, never checked in with them to even properly organize things. Instead he just assumed "they would know". > and undermine your elected auditors. Given how much he just assumed will happen and failed to properly plan and ensure will happen he is doing quite a good job at helping them with it. And after all that his idea of fixing things is to write a 20+ tweet complaint on twitter. If these people are as corrupt as some here think they must love that guy, they couldn't have found a more superficial incompetent guy for the job if they tried.