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Public commenter warns Glendale lacks audit capacity, cites unreviewed contracts and uncoded police overtime
Summary
At the May 13 Civil Service Commission meeting, Herbert Milano urged the commission to address what he called insufficient auditing capacity — claiming the city auditor’s office has one person for a $1.2 billion budget, that only three of 93 contracts were audited in three years, and that roughly 10,000 police overtime hours lacked assignment codes.
Herbert Milano told the Civil Service Commission that the city’s auditing function is understaffed and that the shortfall threatens financial integrity. Milano said the auditor’s office has only one person to oversee about $1.2 billion in appropriations and argued the city should have "six" auditors given the size of the budget. He said a recent review of roughly 93 contracts found only three had been audited in a three‑year period and that a records request to human resources showed about 10,000 hours of police overtime without assignment codes.
"Without the auditing function being strong, you put the finances of the city in jeopardy of corruption," Milano told commissioners during the public‑comment period. He also raised concerns about nepotism in personnel records and said he had provided documents via the California Public Records Act for the commission’s review.
Commissioners did not take formal action on Milano’s comments at the meeting. Mr. Quan (staff) acknowledged receipt of the public comment and moved on to the next agenda item. The commission’s agenda that night focused on recruitment reports, classification changes and informational reports; the public comment was noted on the record.
Milano urged the commission to ask HR staff to make documents available for review; he said the materials he provided were intended to give commissioners "a perspective of the problems we have." The commission did not discuss a follow‑up or assign staff to investigate during the session.
The public comment raised several concrete claims that were not resolved on the record: the number of auditor positions the city should have, the number of audited contracts, the 10,000 uncoded overtime hours, and allegations of nepotism. Commissioners and staff present did not dispute Milano’s figures during the meeting, and no independent audit or staff response was offered at that time. The commission’s next steps on these matters were not specified before adjournment.
