Audit committee presses police department for update on long-standing financial recommendations

At the Audit Committee meeting, members pressed for a clearer timeline and documentary evidence from the Police Department on recommendations stemming from a fiscal management audit that the Inspector General said remain open for well over a year.

Chair asked the Inspector General for an update despite the Police Department not being present. Meghan Lamarzee said many recommendations require creation of formal policy or procedural codes and that recent leadership and staffing shifts have affected implementation. She added some implementation delays are related to union agreements and that the office needs written policies or other documentary evidence to close recommendations.

"If there is a policy that they claim has been put into place, we just need the policy," Lamarzee said, asking departments to send documents so the office can validate and close recommendations where appropriate.

Councilmember Lukey pushed for a substantive, timebound response: "These are corrective actions that should have been taken care of long before now," he said, and asked for a list of what has been completed, what is in progress, and what has not started. Councilmember Katz suggested the committee's letter request that the Police Department provide its update within two weeks and, if they cannot, require an explanation for the delay.

The Chair proposed elevating the letter to the County's chief administrative officer if the department does not provide adequate documentation. The committee agreed to prepare and send the letter and to review any material at the scheduled follow-up with the Inspector General on Nov. 21.

The committee did not take a formal recorded vote on this course of action, but members reached consensus to pursue written documentation, to require policies where asserted, and to escalate to the CAO if needed.