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Council asks staff to scope forensic audit options, seek peer examples
Summary
Following a Home-Rule charter provision, council directed staff to research forensic-audit approaches used by peer cities, estimate costs, and return with options and a recommended scope; staff warned such audits can range from ~$150,000 to millions depending on scope.
Liberty Hill City Council directed city staff Thursday to develop options for a five-year forensic audit called for by the city’s recently adopted home-rule charter, and to gather examples from nearby municipalities before committing funds.
Joshua Armstrong, the city’s finance director, told council that the charter calls for a forensic audit within a five‑year period but provides little detail on scope. “A forensic audit can run anywhere from about a hundred and $50,000 up to millions of dollars depending on what specific areas of focus you’re looking into and then how far back that you wanna go,” Armstrong said. He recommended the council decide what topics and timeframe the audit should cover before budgeting for the engagement.
Councilmembers asked staff to collect free, peer‑to‑peer information first. One councilmember said outreach to finance directors in nearby cities—Georgetown, Round Rock and Pflugerville—would be a low-cost way to learn which firms were used, how far back those audits went and what they cost. Multiple councilmembers recalled prior consultant work and a short-term deep dive several years ago, but said that engagement did not rise to a forensic-level audit.
Council discussion emphasized three priorities: clarity on the charter committee’s original intent, a narrowly tailored first audit that provides a “clean slate” for the new finance team, and cost control by phasing the work if necessary. Several councilmembers urged staff to identify any prior third-party reviews and summarize findings from those engagements to avoid redundant work.
Action and next steps: Council did not take a formal vote to commission an audit but asked staff to prepare a recommended scope, gather examples from neighboring jurisdictions, identify prior consulting work done for Liberty Hill in the last five years, and estimate costs by task so the council can consider funding in a future budget. Armstrong said staff would likely recommend contracting with a consultant to help prepare the forensic-audit scope and would bring back numbers for the upcoming budget cycle.
The discussion opened with an overview that the city already budgets roughly $90,000 annually for the standard state-required audit; council and staff noted the forensic audit represents a different, more detailed and potentially much more expensive engagement.
