Audit committee narrows 2026 special-project audit candidates to tree and field funds; water-billing issue flagged for follow-up

The Audit Committee discussed candidate topics for the 2026 special-project audit program and agreed to reconvene with additional information before finalizing selections. Auditors told the committee they typically devote a focused, targeted scope to special projects (about 20'25 hours) and that site work is usually scheduled for late September or early October, with drafts delivered in late November or early December.

Steve Curley, the city comptroller, provided account figures the committee used to prioritize targets: field rentals have produced about $176,000 in revenue and roughly $90,000 in expenses through period 8, while the tree replacement fund took in almost $430,000 in revenue and recorded about $639,000 in expenses. Curley said the tree fund balance had grown because the department had been encumbering funds to purchase large equipment, explaining the larger expenses.

Members and auditors discussed why the food-services revolving account is sometimes a frequent audit target: federal reimbursements and the federal component of revenue collection draw compliance scrutiny. Auditors noted that while they review the federal component of food-service revenue under the single audit, they do not always examine all revolving-fund expenditures unless the committee specifically requests such work.

Committee members also raised recurring complaints about large "catch-up" water bills after a meter-replacement project. Julia Malachy and others described how failing transponders led to estimated bills; when new meters were read, customers sometimes received large final bills that were later adjusted. Malachy said the billing office initially handled adjustments manually, then automated adjustments for large bills; a committee member, Carl Valente, said he had received one such large bill and reviewed the methodology and found it reasonable.

Auditors asked the comptroller and DPW to isolate the population of adjusted accounts and the dollar volume so they could assess the level of effort required to examine the issue. "If that population could be isolated, that would make our opinion on the level of effort to dedicate to that much clarified," Jim Petrovski said.

Next steps: participants agreed to take the detailed water-billing questions offline so staff can pull data and return to the committee with proposals. The group expressed interest in selecting one town-side project (trees or fields) and one school-side project; the committee will meet again in the coming weeks to finalize the 2026 special-project scope and schedule.