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Taxpayers association warns Bakersfield is behind on audits and downtown work is harming businesses
Summary
A representative of the Kern County Taxpayers Association told the council the city's consolidated annual financial reports have been delayed since 2021 and are "14 months late," and raised concerns about downtown project impacts and deferred maintenance on the Bank of America building.
Michael Chernofsd, identifying himself as representing the Kern County Taxpayers Association, used his public‑comment time to raise several accountability concerns: prolonged delays in the city's consolidated annual financial reports, downtown construction impacts and potential deferred‑maintenance costs for a downtown Bank of America building. “Since 2021, the City has been regularly late on filing these very important documents,” Chernofsd said, and added, “They are 14 months late.”
Council members followed up with questions about a timeline to get audits current. A city staff speaker said the delays were caused largely by implementing a new ERP (enterprise resource planning) financial system but reported the ERP is now fully implemented and that a newly selected external auditing firm agreed to expedite work and produce two audits in one year to help the city catch up. The staff speaker said that would put the city back on schedule by next February.
