New finance director says city accounting needs multi-year corrections; council hears plan to fix reconciliations and taxes

Monica Hofstadter, Sunnyside’s newly hired finance director, told the Sunnyside City Council at its study session that reconciliations and accounting entries dating to 2023 and 2024 require correction and prior tax filings had not been completed while a prior employee was on leave.

Hofstadter said she has begun undoing misposted transactions so she can close 2023 and 2024 properly and continue with reconciliations for 2025. “None of it. None of it. None of it's been done,” she said of parts of the prior bookkeeping. She told council that she has caught up January–March 2025 reconciliations and that Springbrook (the city’s accounting software vendor) is assisting with correcting earlier-year entries.

Why it matters: Councilors pressed for details because unresolved reconciliations and late tax filings can affect budgeting, grant compliance and the city’s ability to forecast and spend in the current fiscal year. Hofstadter told council the problems included merchant-credit-card transactions that were uploaded incorrectly and therefore did not match bank deposits, requiring prior-year adjustments to complete accurate closes.

Hofstadter described the technical issue she found: credit-card merchant-account transactions were uploaded “directly into everybody's account on one side” while the bank deposit side showed a single lump sum, masking individual card balances and leaving merchant-account balances unreconciled. To correct that she said Springbrook must manually reassign many transactions going back into 2023 so she can close 2024 and then finish 2025.

Council discussion focused on the scale, timing and staffing to complete the work. Councilor Hancock and others asked whether the city still uses Springbrook and whether switching to an accrual system like ClearGov is planned. Hofstadter replied Springbrook is a cash-basis system and that an eventual move to accrual accounting and ClearGov modules may be recommended as the city’s revenues grow and as part of a longer-term five-year plan requiring staff training.

Councilors also asked about budget adjustments and vendor payments. Hofstadter said additional line-item detail will be pulled out of aggregated “miscellaneous” accounts so the city and state reporting will correctly reflect items such as ambulance medical supplies, leases, bonds and software subscriptions. She said invoices from a staffing vendor, Astrohire, were visible in the system and she would confirm whether required vendor forms (W-9s) are on file.

Hofstadter reported that tax filings were not current when she started and that the city paid fines to bring filings up to date. “Everything is caught up to date right now,” she said, adding that she would report the total fines to council. She asked for time and resources to train finance staff and cross-train roles so future leaves do not result in lapses.

Council reaction was largely supportive. Deputy Mayor Gebaughn and several councilors thanked Hofstadter for the work and emphasized the need to prepare next year’s budget while accounting reconciliations continue. Hofstadter proposed internal reclassifications of one vacated supervisory role to create an assistant-accounting position and to promote from within to retain institutional knowledge.

The session produced no formal council vote on finance staffing or software procurement; Hofstadter said she would return with follow-up details, vendor confirmations and requested personnel recommendations and would continue working with Springbrook and staff to complete prior-year adjustments.