Elgin council hears progress report on finance overhaul, auditors’ findings likely to persist short term

Elgin — City staff and consultants on Monday told the Elgin City Council they have begun a multi-year effort to correct the city’s accounting controls, prepare auditable financial statements and deliver clearer budget reports to the council and public.

The consultants and interim staff emphasized progress but cautioned that some audit findings will not disappear quickly. “We believe significant progress has been made. We still have a long ways to go,” said Isaac Turner, a city staff member leading parts of the effort.

The update matters because the city’s external audits have repeatedly flagged the same issues. Laurie Langford, a consultant with Gradient Solutions, and Pam Saunders Sanders, who has been “pitch hitting” as the finance director while also serving in HR, described recent training, software cleanup and reforms intended to reduce repeat audit findings and to prepare reliable numbers for the coming budget season.

Langford said staff and consultants reviewed more than 300 transactions requiring follow-up and described how auditors sample accounting areas: “For instance, accounts payable, we provide them with a list of every bill…” The presentation covered hands‑on training completed with the city’s financial system (Encode), creation of recorded training videos, a new budget manual and process changes to improve version control and reduce duplicate documents.

Saunders Sanders said the city provided four full days of Encode training and has produced videos and process documentation so staff can “refer back to if we get stopped again.” She said the budget packet the council will receive on July 15 will be generated directly from the cleaned financial system and “will look very different than what you’ve seen here in the last 6 years.”

On audit timing and recurrence, Langford warned council members that some findings—especially those tied to preparing complete and finalized financial statements—are the most difficult to resolve and could appear in more than one subsequent audit. “Anytime you see an audit with the finding, and then staff’s addressing of that and the same one is same things are there the next year and the third year, then there’s a problem,” she said.

Consultants urged more training and recommended routine reporting so elected officials can monitor trends. “You can do monthly reports… That will tell you in the simplest form what your budgeted amount was, what you spent during that pay period,” Langford said; she and other staff suggested starting with quarterly reports initially and moving to monthly reporting once the system stabilizes.

Council members asked about staffing, with one council member asking whether the currently posted accountant position is sufficient. Langford said, based on her experience, the city “needs 2 accountants on staff” with appropriate training and experience in governmental accounting to maintain progress once initial clean-up is completed.

City staff committed to presenting a system-generated budget on July 15 and to provide a short set of highlights at the all‑council town hall scheduled for July 19. Consultants said they will continue to document processes, pursue professional training programs for staff and recommend standards such as applying for industry awards to benchmark progress.

The presentation included repeated assurances that consultants and staff had not found evidence of malfeasance; Langford said, “We do not see any evidence of that. If we had, you would been notified.”

Council members and staff agreed on next steps: produce digestible budget and financial reports for elected officials, continue staff training and maintain documentation so controls are sustainable.