Elgin council hears audit findings, consultants urge hiring finance director; consultants do not recommend immediate forensic audit

Elgin City Council members on April 2025 heard presentations from outside consultant Gradient Solutions and city staff about years of bookkeeping inconsistencies and ongoing bank-reconciliation work, and were urged to prioritize hiring a finance director and a senior accountant to prepare for an annual audit and budget process.

Council members and several residents also asked whether the city should order a forensic audit; consultants and the city manager said they had not found evidence of criminal malfeasance and recommended first focusing on staffing, controls and preparing for the audit that begins in June.

The discussion began after public commenters raised transparency concerns. Stephanie Lipke told the council that earlier recruitment work had appeared to stall and that key finance roles had not been publicly posted. Tiffany St. Peter and another resident said the city's annual consultant audit and a second consultant, Gradient Solutions, had identified troubling account and fund-use issues and urged a forensic audit. Their comments framed the council's follow-up questions to staff and the consultants.

Cal Webb, a presenter from Gradient Solutions, said the consulting team was helping staff with audit preparation and budget forecasting and that the immediate priorities should be the audit and the budget. "There are a lot of challenges with our finances. It is enormous as you will hear, but we've gotta figure out how to get a handle on it," Webb said. He described…