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Pleasant Valley board voids long-outstanding checks and approves forensic cleanup of reconciliations
Summary
The Board of Aldermen voted Dec. 15 to void a block of stale checks and authorized a month-by-month forensic reconciliation to undo prior journal-entry work and restore proper bank-clearing procedures after a finance review uncovered long-dormant outstanding items.
The Board of Aldermen of Pleasant Valley voted Dec. 15 to void a set of long-outstanding checks and to move forward with a forensic-style cleanup of the city’s bank reconciliations.
Treasurer/finance consultant Joanne told the board staff found many stale outstanding checks dating back to 2015 and identified one larger flagged item (about $23,000) that appears duplicated in the ledger. Joanne said the practice of clearing activity by journal entry instead of by marking individual items as cleared had left the general ledger out of alignment with bank balances. “If you just spend the time to do it right rather than do it by journal entry, it is easier in the long run,” Joanne said.
Council member [Committee member] moved and the board approved a motion to void the highlighted block of checks (reference numbers identified in the report) that were older than the committee’s cutoff. The clerk recorded the roll call and the motion passed by unanimous recorded vote of members present. The board directed staff to present summaries of the reconciliation corrections to the finance committee and to bring technical details to the committee for review before citywide posting.
Forensic accounting work will proceed in staged months: staff and consultant Debri will undo prior journal entries, repost transactions so they clear correctly in the system, and reconcile pooled versus statutory fund balances. The consultant said the work is time-consuming and not evidence of missing money, but described the bookkeeping approach used in late 2024 as “bizarre” and in need of correction.
The board authorized voiding the stale checks and asked that summaries of changes be returned to the finance chair and that the finance committee be shown detailed supporting entries as the cleanup proceeds. No further formal budget amendments or spending decisions were approved in this item.
The next procedural step is for staff to implement the reconciliations and for the finance committee to receive periodic summaries and, if necessary, invoices from outside reviewers funded by existing budget lines or as otherwise directed.
