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Council urges formal corrective-action plan after forensic audit; city manager tasked with quarterly updates
Summary
After receiving a forensic audit with recurring findings, the council asked the city manager to prepare a corrective-action plan and provide quarterly progress reports; members expressed concern about repeated audit recommendations and lost revenues.
Clifton’s council pressed city administration on a recent forensic audit during its Aug. 19 meeting, asking City Manager DeMarzo to prepare a formal corrective-action plan and to return with quarterly implementation updates.
Council members described repeated audit findings — including prior deductions and payroll/benefit processing errors — that have recurred across multiple audits and fiscal years. Councilors flagged specific fiscal concerns raised in the report, including incorrect deductions related to employee benefits and perceived loss of revenue tied to payment-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILOT) agreements. One item cited in discussion: a historical deduction error that resulted in roughly $212,996.99 in uncollected deductions that auditors had previously identified.
Several council members expressed frustration that recommendations have not been fully implemented in the past. The mayor and council agreed to ask the city manager to submit a corrective-action plan that responds directly to the audit recommendations; council members asked for the plan to include timelines and quarterly progress reports back to the governing body. A council member also suggested adding a separate resolution (cited in meeting as 4/26/25) to accept the corrective-action plan.
Administration said staff are preparing responses to the report and noted some internal meetings and partial submissions had occurred; the city manager said a formal submission to auditors was pending and that finance would complete a response.
Outcome: Council directed the city manager to prepare a corrective-action plan addressing audit recommendations and to provide quarterly updates. Councilors also asked finance to check health-benefit processing and other specific audit items and to file any required corrective documentation with auditors.
What’s next: City manager to submit the corrective-action plan and staff will coordinate documentation for external auditors; the council expects quarterly status reports.
