Town Seeks Bids for Operational Audit of Townside Budget

The town is soliciting bids for an operational audit of the townside budget, which was approved in 2010-11 at $86.1 million, a 5.7 percent increase over this year's townside budget of $81.5 million.

But First Selectman Ken Flatto's and Board of Finance Chairman Tom Flynn's request for a joint operational audit with the Board of Education met with as much success Wednesday as it did three months ago.

"The board decided in March, they took a sense of the body, they didn't want to do a joint audit," Board of Education Vice Chairman Pam Iacono said in a hallway in Sullivan-Independence Hall after Flatto and Flynn announced the timeframe for the townside audit. "They felt that this is something under our purview, and it's our responsibility to oversee our own audit...The feeling was we own it, we need to be responsible for it."

Iacono, though, said the school board's Finance, Budget & Community Relations Subcommittee, which will oversee the audit, wanted a Board of Finance member on the committee. She said the committee approved a request for proposals on Tuesday and that the RFP would go to the Board of Education next Tuesday.

"We're hoping to get our RFP approved Tuesday and then go out to bid, with responses due back July 16," Iacono said. "We're hoping to interview firms the week of July 19."

Flatto said bids for an audit of the townside operating budget would be due back July 7 and that town officials would then interview qualified firms.

Town boards approved $50,000 for an operational audit of the townside budget and the Board of Education approved $50,000 for an operational audit of its budget. Both hope to have efficiency recommendations from auditors in time for preparations of the 2011-12 town budget, which begin in late fall.

"We'll be sending an RFP to 10 companies; most are audit firms, some are consulting firms," Flatto said, adding that any company could respond to the RFP and bid solicitation. "The bid will be awarded to the firm that meets qualifications - a combination of qualifications and pricing. Obviously a low price would be very helpful."

Flatto said a committee made up of two Board of Finance members, two Representative Town Meeting members, Tom Bremer, who is Flatto's chief of staff, and Town Fiscal Officer Paul Hiller would work with the audit firm and track its progress.

Flatto said he hoped to award a contract for the operational audit by the third week in July and that he expected the audit to take three to five months. He said he didn't have a target number for savings but believed the town workforce was "very lean and this would be a way to codify it."

"We've really scrutinized every budget line a lot...We have done a lot of cost cutting, at least I think we have," Flatto said.

Flynn said, "It's too limiting to put an amount...It's much better for them to go in without a hard-dollar target."

Flatto sent out a questionnaire to town department heads this week that asked them to identify, among other things, their top three revenue sources and dollars generated; their top five expenditures, excluding payroll, and dollars expended; their administrative and supervisory employees; whether they have hired any consultants, and, if so, why and at what cost; which budget lines are consistently over-budget and under-budget; whether their tasks overlap with other town departments; and whether they obtain three quotes for individual purchases between $1,000 and $7,499.

"My thought in doing this was to get input from department heads early on. I think we'll be able to get off to a quick start," Flatto said.

Flynn said the audit would be a "full, unfettered and comprehensive review of town operations - no sacred cows, nothing off limits." He said Mary LeClerc, vice chairman of the Board of Finance, and finance board member James Brown would serve on the committee that oversees the townside audit.

Flatto said he thought $50,000 was enough to do an audit of the townside budget because town officials could do a lot of legwork in gathering information and it was a competitive bidding environment. He said the city of Yonkers, N.Y. did an operational audit of a $400 million budget for $110,000 in the early 1990s, while the town was looking to spend $50,000 on an operational audit of a $86.1 million townside budget.

The last operational audit of the town budget, done in the mid-1990s, focused on increasing revenue through raising fees and changing how revenue was collected; developing a technology plan that included the use of more personal computers; and improving communication among the town's land-use agencies, Flatto said.