City hears from auditor at council meeting

by Todd Brooks

The City of Comanche received its annual audit report last week with recommendations for the city to work on in order to keep track of grant money.

Chris Angel of Angel, Johnston & Blasingame, P.C., spoke to the city council about its findings last Tuesdays.

Angel said there were errors in the grant schedule, including leaving off of two grants and another grant had the wrong award amounts and the wrong federal expenditure amounts. A couple of other grant errors were also found.

There was also a problem with reimbursed revenue not being deposited where expenditures were made.

In the city management response letter, city manager Chuck Ralls said the increased number of grants the city received and the growing complexity of the grants lead to mistakes being made.

Ralls said the city will be taking several actions, including sending the city clerk to grant management classes and changing the name of the grant holding fund allowing all the grants to be assimilated out of one fund to help reduce the chances of funding errors.

Angel said there was a problem with under reporting the funding for the sidewalk.

In his response letter, Ralls said the city never received any of the funding, never made any purchases or had input on the selection of the contractor. Instead, Ralls said, that responsibility should fall on the Oklahoma Department of Transportation.

“This was clearly a state project within our city limits,” Ralls said in his response. “Can we be identified as a recipient if we didn’t receive anything?”

The auditor response by letter said the city signed a contract with ODOT that states the city was the “recipient of the benefits of the projects.”

“In our opinion, whether the cash does or does not flow through the city’s bank accounts does not relieve the city from reporting the ‘benefits’ of the grant,” the response letter said.

The benefit was the new sidewalks, the auditors said.

The audit was approved by the council.

The city must now go through a federal audit.

In other business, the city voted to sell a 1992 tanker to the Corum Fire Department for $10,000 and authorized the use of the funds to upfit the new brush truck.

They also agreed to purchase a pre-engineered 7,500-square foot metal building for the Church Avenue Project for $95,000 to be paid for with USDA-CF grant reimbursement funds.

They also heard a presentation from the Oklahoma Municipal Assurance Group about how to prioritize the city’s business.