Lake Worth Audits

William J. Brown. Does anyone know who this man is? He works for the city but has anyone seen or heard from him? Has he ever given a report at a public meeting? Commissioners, he reports to you. You, in turn, report to us, or that's how it's supposed to work. Remember that tier?  The taxpayers are on the top of it.

Mr. Brown signed a contract on October 17, 2017 to be our Internal Auditor and his employment began on November 6. He's on a one year contract that is automatically renewable every year as long as he gets a satisfactory written performance evaluation. On or before January 15, 2019, he is up for a salary review which is now at $105,000 a year with all the generous and great perks of working for the city.

William J. Brown III employment contract

Right now the city is discussing and having workshops on the new budget that will begin on October 1, 2018, just 3.5 months from now. The city has not yet produced the external audit for the year ending September 30, 1917. That budget was produced under the former Finance Director, Marie Elianor, who is no longer with the city. The city is yet to find a replacement. We can't keep a finance director.  Why? How can the City know where its going if they don't know where they've been?  Finance is, without a doubt, one, if not the most important departments in this city.  It is the one responsible for your money.

The Commission and the City have studies that prove that the Electric Utility is unsustainable unless they raise rates. This rate parity idea, pushed by Maxwell and the Mayor with FPL was always political as no studies supported that idea. And commercial rates are still high. What is really going on at our electric Utility? Transparency has never been the city's strong point.

Some employees don't understand how the city can transfer so much of its electrical utility profit to the general fund and then continue to upgrade and simply maintain the asset. The city has always had a problem maintaining anything. Some employees are frustrated that they are not utilized well or that they are all not treated the same when it comes to raises.

The question remains, where is the External Audit for 2017?  Why is it taking so long? And where is the Internal Auditor, Mr. Brown? When will the public be informed?

Lake Worth to hire Internal Auditor

William Brown has been chosen to be our new Internal Auditor.

"The City Commission, after individually interviewing four candidates and completing ballots on each candidate, selected William Brown, currently Internal Auditor for the City of Rivera Beach, as the highest ranked candidate. Upon direction by the City Commission at the October 3, 2017 Regular Commission Meeting, the City Attorney’s office entered into negotiations with Mr. Brown to develop the terms of the Internal Auditor employment contract. The employment contract with Mr. Brown is being presented to the City Commission for its review and consideration."

This entire process was unorthodox as the final interviews and rankings were not done at a public meeting.  Only two commissioners bothered to do their jobs and actually rank the four candidates--Andy Amoroso and Herman Robinson--they ranked Joe Rodriguez as tops. The remaining three officials (Triolo, Maxwell and Hardy) checked off only one box leaving the rest of the candidate ranking boxes blank thus giving the other candidates zero scores. By so doing, it skewed and manipulated the ranking system. As these candidates spent a lot of time interviewing and preparing/hoping to be hired by our city, they all should have been ranked and should be able to know how they faired.

As this was not done at a public meeting as it has in the past, commissioners please make sure that Mr. Brown reports and answers to you and not the city manager. Mr. Brown will be making $139,270.

Internal Auditor Lake Worth

It was mentioned last night that the city has given an offer to a candidate for the Internal Auditor's position. Did anyone even know that the city was interviewing candidates? This process was done differently this year and all out of the public realm. Why weren't the top candidates interviewed at a public meeting as it's always been done in the past?

Back on March 20, 2012, the city commission ranked their top candidates for Internal Auditor based only on the application and resume and then voted on accepting 5 candidates to interview: Glenn Holloway, Robert Marksmeier, Kathleen Matthews, Christina Seymour and Steven Wolkomir.

The procedure back then was narrowing the applicants down to three. One of the applicants withdrew and public interviews took place with the remaining two. Prior to the meeting, each one met with the commissioners in private meetings. 

Last night it was stated that the offer they made is on the low side of the salary spectrum. We lost an excellent, highly qualified  auditor in 2012 when the Vice Mayor would not negotiate with the top candidate, Robert Marksmeier. He had his Master's Degree in Accounting and also one in Business and is a Certified Internal Auditor working for the City of Miami for 11 years. .He finally withdrew because of the Vice Mayor's stall. And this started the process all over again not to mention the expense it caused.

The Internal Auditor reports to the commission. Why wasn't the commission involved in the salary offer? Last night, they wouldn't even tell the commission or the public what the salary ranges are.  The HR director fudged on the answer...didn't have the answer... it was all secret. The commission continues to abrogate its authority to the city manager who continues to change procedures. There is way too much happening out of the sunshine.

From the Charter: "The appointive officers shall be the city manager, city attorney, internal auditor, city clerk, police chief, fire chief, and such other officers as may be provided for by ordinance. Any of the above officers which are, or may become, under civil service shall be subject to civil service regulations. All of the appointive officers under the charter, except the city manager, city attorney, and internal auditor shall be appointed by the city manager and all appointive officers shall hold office subject to provisions of law." In this case,  City Manager Bornstein seems to be leading the commission to his desires.

Internal Auditor To Retire from Lake Worth

Here's a man whose suggestions were ignored and/or never implemented.  Another one bites the dust.

Kenneth Oakes, the City of Lake Worth Internal Auditor, will be retiring on March 31, 2017. Ken has served as the Internal Auditor for the past four years and during his tenure with Lake Worth, many of his audits, particularly the early ones, have significantly impacted the City’s processes and controls.

In Ken’s time with the City, he has built an impressive portfolio of more than 45 reports, memos on a variety of audit topics, audit plans, documents establishing new programs and procedures, and investigation result memos that have been sent to the City Commission.

Ken’s initial plans for his retirement involve his fishing equipment and passport and visiting his kids in New York during the warmer months.

“Ken was our first Internal Auditor to serve even though the position was first created in 1988 it remained vacant for many years.  The IA is an important part of our government and Ken basically created and set the bar for future Auditors.  I have valued his reports, insights, and thoughtful approach to the City organization.”  ~Lake Worth City Manager, Michael Bornstein

“Years before working in the City, in fact even before I was a full-time Florida resident (pre-2005), I was a regular visitor to the Lake and Lucerne restaurant scene. This practice will absolutely continue, as I have always felt very comfortable in this wild and wooly culture. In addition, my graphic artist wife Sue has exhibited art works in many of the City’s venues over the years. I’m sure this will continue as well. Even though I live in suburban Lake Worth, my attachment to and connection with this burgh will continue.” ~Lake Worth Internal Auditor, Kenneth Oakes

Please contact Ben Kerr, the City of Lake Worth Communications Specialist with any questions or comments.

The Internal Auditor - Another "misspeak" at the NAPC Candidate Forum

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There was another bit of "weird" information stated by (if my memory serves me correctly) Commissioner Amoroso at the NAPC Candidate Forum when he said that we hadn't had an internal auditor in ten years and that they (the trio) had to fund one...putting the blame of no IA on a past commission and former city manager Stanton. Now, I realize that it is impossible to stay on top of everything going on in our city but an elected official needs to be on top of the facts.

It was a totally false statement in every respect. As stated in a previous blog, the city did not fund for an internal auditor in the 2010 budget because the city, due to the economy and lack of ad valorem, could not afford the position and relied on the OMB.  Prior to that budget year, we had an internal auditor who was totally independent (not an employee), Scot Menke. At that time, the city totally relied on the audit conducted by the external auditors. Scot Menke was great and he would never allow any city manager setting himself up as God. But here in Lake Worth, the incumbents treat  Michael Bornstein as a demigod; they hired him. Our internal auditor remains invisible to the public eye and gives one public report a year.

Hiring an internal auditor is a good thing as long as he is totally independent but nowhere in the Ordinance below does it say that the city must hire an internal auditor. Positions were being eliminated right and left back then and the IA position was one that bit the dust.

The appointive officers shall be the city manager, city attorney, internal auditor, city clerk, police chief, fire chief, and such other officers as may be provided for by ordinance. Any of the above officers which are, or may become, under civil service shall be subject to civil service regulations. All of the appointive officers under the charter, (except the city manager, city attorney, and internal auditor) shall be appointed by the city manager and all appointive officers shall hold office subject to provisions of law.

(Ord. No. 96-34, § 1, 12-5-96)

The question is, do we have to have an internal auditor by law? I can't find anything in our Muni-Code that says so. We must have an external auditor.  He is fed all the information by the city who hires him or his firm and reports to the city manager.

The Internal Auditor provides an independent assessment function within our city. It is non-political and he assists the management team. The Internal Auditor conducts performance and compliance audits in order to provide accountability to the public and promote the efficient and effective use of city resources and operations. He can investigate all financials and departments independent from what information that the city wants to provide.

Internal Auditor gives Report

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Last night Kenneth Oakes, Internal Auditor, finally got to give his report.  He had already given his report on the Code Department on May 23, 2013 and there was a big shake-up because of it. He says things are better there now. He didn't go into a lot of details in his report last night that covered many areas but he did say that he was surprised that things were not as bad as he had feared.

The City provides 160 cell phones which equates to about 40% of staff. They get to use the phones, no questions are asked. Individual phone detail is not provided by Sprint due to the amount of paper possibly totaling 400 pages. A summary of usage is billed and then reviewed by the IT Department for payment.

CBS 12 News was in the parking lot as I arrived having already conducted its interview.  They had interviewed our Internal Auditor and Mike Bornstein, city manager, after they found out that tracking taxpayer money in Lake Worth for recent years is difficult, in some cases impossible. Their story focused on one aspect where money and abuse has occurred, cell phones, but also touched on city vehicle abuse. Employees were using their phones to make personal calls out of state after hours or during the day and using city owned vehicles for personal use. Invoices are not generally reviewed by department heads.Click here for story and video

Mr. Oakes discovered that cell phone use was being abused by many employees present and past with no way of knowing how much money was lost. Lake Worth City Manager Michael Bornstein says the city didn't even have an internal auditor for 6 years, and he expected to find areas needing serious improvement. It may seem like six years but our last internal auditor's contract was not renewed for the 2010 Budget year and Mr. Oakes has been here since January 8, 2013.  This administration likes to play the blame game. Mike Bornstein has been here since April 2012, long enough to understand what's going on in his departments. Doesn't the buck stop with him?

This is just another reason why residents worry about giving them $63.5 million for a bond.

Where's the Internal Auditor?

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Tonight's city commission agenda is SHORT.  It seems to get shorter every meeting.  That is the plan. Keep the public barefooted and enfeebled when it comes to any sort of meaningful information. This commission complained that this position was not funded by the former city manager and they hired Kenneth Oakes through much fanfare. They have kept him barefoot but certainly not pregnant.

On May 6, Kenneth Oakes, our Internal Auditor who has been here for one year now, was to report on all that he has been doing. Not to be. It was decided by someone that the agenda was extensive and commissioners did not want a very long meeting. Therefore, they wanted Mr. Oakes to have adequate time for his presentation. In an attempt to avoid what happened at his last presentation before the Commission on August 6, 2013 when he stepped to the podium after 11:00 pm, it was decided to reschedule tentatively for June 3.

Mr. Oakes is still not on the agenda.