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Council requests controller audit of Graysdale spending; controller says 20‑day deadline infeasible
Summary
Northampton County Council debated a resolution asking the controller’s office to audit specific employee-retention and related spending at Graysdale. Controller Czerinsky told council the office lacks capacity to meet a 20‑day deadline and proposed meeting with council staff to define scope and timing.
Northampton County Council discussed a resolution asking the controller’s office to audit spending tied to employee retention and hiring incentives at Graysdale (referred to in the resolution) and to complete the work within 20 days.
Controller Czerinsky told council the controller’s office can perform the analyses but that the requested 20‑day timeline is not feasible given the office’s year‑end workload and existing audit schedule. “So you requiring us to do an audit that we have not budgeted for within 20 days is not going to be feasible,” Czerinsky said, adding later, “What I am stating is that we cannot do it in 20 days.”
Council members pressing for the review said the request is narrowly targeted to a specific set of funds and expenditures. Council member Rimsky argued the work is focused: “It’s very, very specific monies that we’re asking to know. How was this spent? Who was this spent on? How did it work out?”
Czerinsky outlined the office’s staffing and schedule constraints: six audit staff, year‑end work estimated at roughly 1,710 hours, other scheduled audits totaling additional hours (the controller cited a scheduling figure described as 4,592 hours in the transcript), and the need to assign distinct audits to individual auditors if multiple analyses are required. The controller said recent hires include an auditor who began about two weeks earlier and another staffer who joined within the past year.
Multiple council members urged the controller’s office and council staff to meet and clarify the resolution’s scope. Council member Brown and others emphasized that council has historically requested independent audits from the controller’s office and that the office’s independence makes its analysis valuable. Council members proposed giving the office more time and asked the controller to meet with council leadership and counsel to identify a feasible deadline; the controller said staff would meet and return with a realistic delivery date and recommended the resolution be reintroduced with that date.
No formal vote on the audit resolution was recorded in the transcript excerpt provided; the council directed further coordination between the controller’s office and council staff.
