Ann says she wants money "owed " to her

Several years back we had a Finance Director who violated the CCNA. The City’s Purchasing Code had 16 violations regarding the prime aerobic bioreactor vendor. The city’s purchasing ordinances were being routinely and completely circumvented without any evidence of opposition from the then-Finance Director.

According to the Audit that was prepared by Scot Menke dated December 21, 2007, the following items were in direct violation of the engineering expenditures on the landfill—taken directly from his report.

the State of Florida’s CCNA was violated without any objection from the then-finance director

the then-finance director failed to establish any proper budgetary and internal controls over cash disbursements

the then-finance director failed to properly supervise inexperienced Finance Department staff processing cash disbursements

as a result of the foregoing, the then-Finance Director provided incomplete and inaccurate monthly financial reports to the City Manager and City Commission

the then-Finance Director failed to recognize the full extent of the unauthorized landfill expenditures even after discovering them

the then-Public Works Director continued approving landfill expenditures for payment months after being repeatedly made aware that there was no authorized funding source for those expenditures

the landfill vendor continued working, billing, and receiving funds from the City for months in the absence of an approved Contract covering those expenditures

the landfill vendor continued working, billing and receiving funds from the City for months in the absence of an approved Contract covering those expenditures

the then Public Works Director and the landfill vendor failed to advise the City Commission of all the risks associated with the proposed landfill bioreactor project on which the unauthorized expenditures were made

the city may be able to both recover the unauthorized landfill engineering expenditures and seek criminal prosecution of responsible parties.

The unauthorized engineering expenditures amounted to over $300,000 as I recall.

Among many things wrong with the Finance Department at that time were FICA not being paid, special check requests and not following procedure, not going out to bid on items costing over $25,000, no budget for landfill remediation but still paying invoices, bypassing the Purchasing Manager on approval of a no-bid deal, etc. All of this took place under the previous Commissions that were in charge.

Now I hear that Ann Costello is demanding back pay for sick and vacation time that she says was not in her retirement pay-out.

The Auditor suggested criminal proceedings for all the improprieties in that office of which she was in charge. This was all swept under the rug. WHY?