Carefree council hires CliftonLarsonAllen as town auditor despite councilwoman’s concern over firm's past settlement

The Carefree Town Council voted to approve a contract with CliftonLarsonAllen (CLA) to provide professional auditing services for fiscal years 2025 through 2029, after a council member raised concerns about the firm’s involvement in a large settlement in a different jurisdiction.

Councilwoman Roth said she had researched the firm and noted that CLA settled for $35,150,000 after failing to detect long-running embezzlement in Dixon, Illinois, where $54 million was allegedly embezzled over 22 years. "I'm not sure they're our best person to go with," Roth said during the council's discussion.

Town staff and other council members pushed back on attributing the Dixon case directly to the firm's municipal auditing in every instance. A staff member said the town followed a request-for-proposal process and that several firms responded, including Hinton Burdock and Abdo. The staff member added that the town has multiple financial check-and-balance mechanisms and that CLA had previously audited the town about 20 years ago.

After discussion, a motion to approve the contract for auditing services for fiscal years 2025–2029 was made and seconded. The transcript records the motion passing by a 6–1 vote.

Council records show CLA is a national firm; the town packet noted three responding firms. No member of the council asked to impose limits on the scope of the audit contract in the recorded discussion. The council did not identify any additional conditions in the motion recorded in the meeting.