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Comptroller—s audit finds deficient controls for city parking vendors; committee refers findings to Public Works
Summary
An internal audit found gaps in City of Milwaukee controls over parking-structure and lot revenue, including late vendor reports, absent operating plans, delayed deposits and lack of independent verification of ABM—s bank deposits; committee held the file and referred it to DPW for follow-up and implementation updates.
The Office of the Comptroller presented an audit of the Department of Public Works— (DPW) management of city-owned parking structures and lots, finding insufficiently designed and ineffective controls across multiple vendor agreements and internal processes.
Adriana Molina, audit manager, said the audit covered revenue from Jan. 1 through June 30, 2024, totaling about $3.1 million for four parking structures and one tow lot. The audit team visited facilities, reviewed contracts and vendor invoices, and independently recalculated rates. "Overall, our audit conclusion: the controls that we reviewed were not adequately designed and operating effectively," Molina told the committee.
Auditors issued seven recommendations. Key findings included: ABM (a contractor operating three structures) did not submit required annual operating plans and annual performance reports on time; Deer District LLC submitted its annual budget late and remitted some revenue checks past the deadline; DPW lacked documented procedures for daily operations and deposit timing; ABM lacked detailed written operating guidelines for some operating issues; DPW did not independently validate ABM monthly check revenues because auditors were unable to obtain ABM bank statements; and DPW recorded some revenues on average two months after they were earned, delaying deposits to the treasurer—s office.
Tom Wozniak, parking services manager, told the committee that most auditor recommendations had already been implemented by November, except for obtaining segregated bank statements for ABM revenue (recommendation number 6), which DPW had requested and expected soon. "The vast majority of the things identified already existed. There were controls; they just weren't documented," Wozniak said.
Chuck Schumacher, DPW operations administration manager, explained ABM historically provided consolidated bank statements that combined revenues from multiple customers, limiting direct use for city revenue confirmation. Schumacher said DPW had reconciled vendor-provided financial spreadsheets to invoices but accepted the auditors' recommendation to require bank statements or other independent confirmation going forward.
Committee members pressed DPW on timeline and oversight. Alderman Peter Bergellis called the findings "a systematic failure to hold vendors accountable," and asked what changes DPW had made and would make in the coming weeks. DPW said it had implemented items 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 7 in November and had requested item 6 from ABM; the comptroller's office said it would follow up and could use bank statements to validate historical months once provided. The audit manager and comptroller staff agreed to follow up as part of the audit—s routine follow-up process.
The committee voted to hold the file to the call of the chair and referred the audit findings to the Department of Public Works for action and a follow-up report to the committee.
