Draft Minutes of the Meeting on Tuesday, March 4, 2008
The meeting was called to order at 7:06 PM by Chris Schoppmeyer, Chair. Attendees included Brian Hart, Nancy Kathan, Chris Schoppmeyer and Russ Simon. Jen Jarvis was unable to attend. Guests included R. Peter Taylor, current Town Counsel from McNeill, Taylor & Gallo.
For the record, on 2/22/08, the Committee met with R. Peter Taylor, as counsel, on qualified Attorney/Client Privileged matters. The Forensic Audit report summary and supporting documentation, as well as the additional research and support documents, provided by the Town Staff, associated with the Forensic Audit issues, were distributed to Committee members. The Committee members agreed to split up the documents among its members and to review the data and report back initial findings and observations at its next meeting scheduled for 3/4/08 at 7 PM at Town Hall.
Agenda Items:
Public Comment
One public comment was made by Ed ???, who asked whether the additional support documents provided to the Committee would be available to the public and when. Brian Hart responded that the additional information should be available in the future, once the Committee had a chance to review and assess the information.
Discussion of the Initial Review of Audit Findings Documents
After much discussion on review of the documents and the limited additional explanations provided, the new Committee members agreed that there was a limited amount they could do with the raw data without being provided with the additional background information on the previous discussions held between the Town Council, Administrator, Financial Director and the Forensic Auditor.
In addition, after reviewing some specific items, it appeared that with a better understanding of these previous meetings and perhaps a meeting with the forensic auditor, the Committee could better classify the findings into several groups:
audit findings that could be reconciled and closed with the implementation of simple policy and procedure improvements going forward (a number which have been already been accomplished by staff)
audit findings that may require some one-time, financial adjustments and policy and procedure improvements going forward
and audit findings that need to be investigated further.
All agreed that they would individually set up meetings with Don Parnell over the next two weeks to gain additional background information to allow each member to classify their specific sections and items into groups and review the results with the Committee.
It was the expectation of the Committee members that this process would allow for the closing of numerous items that were correct, but not initially well documented or needed a one time financial action to correct, in addition to policy and procedures changes. By resolving these items quickly, it would also allow the Committee to identify those items that needed further investigation and follow-up.
Committee members will identify those items in the audit that need to be resolved with an actual site visit or interviews to either corroborate or dismiss an allegation. This will be accomplished before the next meeting.
All agreed that it would be useful to have the forensic auditor at the next meeting to verify the groupings and actions recommended as well as to gain additional insight into those items that required additional work and investigation.
The Committee was informed by Brian Hart that a new counsel, Jim Wheat, had been hired to assist the Town Council on the Forensic Audit Follow-up. The Committee asked that they meet with Jim Wheat as soon as possible, perhaps as part of the next scheduled Committee meeting.
The Committee asked that the computer disc provided with the additional documentation be reformatted with readable file extensions (additional documentation was provided in both hard copy and disc form – the disc files were not able to be opened due to incorrect file extensions.
Other Business
a. Next Meeting
The Committee Chair said he would work with the Town Council to determine the approval for and availability of the Forensic Auditor and new Counsel to meet with the Committee and would then set a definitive next meeting date during the third or fourth week of March.
b. Adjournment
The public meeting was adjourned at 8:30 PM
The Committee then conferred with current Counsel on Attorney/Client privileged matters until 9:15 PM.
