There were three findings in the recently released 2023 audit of city government operations — one a perennial finding reflective of minimal staffing in a couple departments, and two that reflect disruptions due to personnel changes, according to the audit report of Young, Oakes & Brown.

All three findings are labeled “material weakness(es) in internal control,” although they’re relatively minor, as the audit found “no material weaknesses or significant deficiencies in internal control over major programs.”

The city is working to correct the weaknesses, according to the audit report.

According to the first, perennial finding, there are cases in which individuals in the Finance and Planning departments perform all functions related to financial transactions, according to the report.

For example, there are purchase orders prepared by individuals who also handle payables and disbursement of funds, while in Planning, “one person initiates purchase orders, receives vendor invoices, prepares checks, has access to checks after signature, controls accounts receivable and maintains all journals,” according to the report.

“No one individual should have complete authority over one transaction,” the report states.

The situation exists because “the city has a relatively small number of employees” in those departments, according to the report.

The problem is mitigated because the finance director, city manager or city clerk review all financial transactions and authorize all purchase orders and payment activity, according to the city’s response, as noted in the report.

The city began dealing with the problem in 2022, working to integrate its accounting manager into the financial accounting process, but the effort hasn’t yet advanced “in a way that fully isolates or segregates the related duties,” the city stated in its response.

“(Still) as the city moves forward, integration of the accounting manager in a (way) that enables a full segregation of duties will occur and is currently ongoing,” the city stated.

According to the second finding, no one tracks acquisition and disposal of various parcels of land owned by the city “on an ongoing basis.”

The parcels need to be tracked because the land values must be reported accurately on the city’s financial statements, the report states.

The problem occurred because the position responsible for such tracking shifted from the Planning Department to the Department of Codes and Inspections, according to the city, as cited in the report.

The responsibility has now been assigned to the city’s GPS technician, who “will be provided with all necessary information regarding land acquisition and disposition on an ongoing basis,” the city told the auditors.

The city plans to catch up on the information that wasn’t previously tracked.

According to the third finding, no one tracks “on an ongoing basis” city loans made to property owners, the report states.

Personnel changes in recent years led to “a disjointed transfer of information concerning the state of the loans in question,” the city told the auditors, according to the report.

The city has “taken steps to update the tracking,” and has assigned an employee to track the loans and the payments made on them, according to the city.