By DAN DeWITT

© St. Petersburg Times,
published July 23, 2001

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BROOKSVILLE -- As the city of Brooksville begins drawing up its budget for the 2001-02 fiscal year, it still does not know exactly how much it spent during the 1999-2000 fiscal year, nor how much money remained when that year ended. Nor does it have any detailed picture of its overall finances and accounting practices.

That is because the city's 1999-2000 audit has not been completed, though the state advises cities that this work should be finished annually by March 31.

The cause of the delay is simple, said Mary Beth Gary, the Oliver & Co. accountant who has prepared the city's audit for several years:

Former Finance Director Lee Huffstutler kept sloppy books, she said. This was compounded, others at the city said, by his failure to teach his staff the computer system used to compile the general ledger, a record of the city's revenues and expenses.

Huffstutler, now the finance director for Temple Terrace, said he should not he held responsible for the problems in the audit because he had left by the time the city began to prepare it. Huffstutler, who began working in Brooksville in 1994, also noted that no such problems existed with previous audits he did prepare.

"I'm saddened they would try to blame me," he said.

But Huffstutler was responsible for the general ledger, Gary said, and "the general ledger was very incomplete for most of the fiscal year from October of '99 to the date he left (in August of 2000)," she said.

"What we're finding is very poor accounting, extremely disorganized records, inconsistent processing of transactions and inadequate documentation... . We're working with city staff to reconstruct some of the accounting records, and having the city staff work on researching a lot of the transactions... . It's been very time-consuming."

How seriously the delay will affect the upcoming budget is still not clear, Gary and city officials said.

Because the primary problem is with the general ledger and because departmental records are relatively complete, each department has been able to prepare a draft budget for 2001-02, said current Finance Director B.J. Coryer.

He and Gary both said the audit will be complete by the time the city holds its first budget workshop Aug. 7.

In the meantime, Gary said, she has been able to provide the city with a good estimate of its financial pictureto allow Coryer to begin preparing a draft budget.

"We know what our historic trends are in revenue and expenses. We kind of know how that's going to balance out. We pretty much, department by department, can make up a budget based on how much you spent last year," said Mayor Joe Johnston III. "Of course, it's better to have the overall information, especially for us on council who have to approve the darn thing."

There is also no penalty for failing to submit a copy of the audit to the state Comptroller's Office by March 31. In fact, said Hal Foy, the financial administrator for the office, the Legislature recently removed that deadline from the books.

It is important, however, that the city complete this work so his office can review the work of the city's accounting staff and its auditor, he said.

"That's your city's financial report card, basically, and if it takes a year to get it out, that's not a good practice," Foy said.

And, even if an accurate budget can be prepared, the delay has muddied the financial picture of the current year, said Gary. Her firm has been paid about $15,000 extra because of the delays, said Vice Mayor Ernie Wever.

The computer program will not allow entries into the system if a balance has not been entered for the previous year, she said. As a result, she said, keeping this year's general ledger "has been delayed, waiting for the results of the audit."

None of the City Council members seemed inclined to blame current staffers.

Wever said City Manager Richard Anderson should not necessarily have caught the problem sooner. Huffstutler may have been able to give Anderson adequate information about the ledger in their periodic meetings, Wever said, just as he was able to do in council meetings.

Wever said he didn't blame Coryer.

Even Huffstutler hedged when asked if his successor was responsible for the problems.

"I don't know what B.J.'s problems may or may not be," Huffstutler said. "I do have some ideas, but I'm not going to drag them out in the newspaper.

"All I know is, when I left there, the books were in pretty good shape up through June," he said.

St. Petersburg Times

-- Anonymous, July 23, 2001