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City Council's finance committee questioned River Valley Transit officials Tuesday about why it wanted to switch auditing firms.
It isn't a question of the cost, which is about $35,000 for either Baker Tilly, or RKL, the two auditing firms discussed at the committee meeting, both of which have done and continue to do work for the city, but rather how the city continually finds surprise financial situations not discovered by auditing processes.
"Not that everyone doesn't seem to be fairly well audited, but there are discoveries we find financially that we're surprised by and not discovered by the audit," said Councilwoman Liz Miele, committee chair.
Adam Winder, general manager of River Valley Transit, proposed RKL to do the fiscal audit for the transit authority after the transit's chief financial officer researched firms, including RKL, which was recommended by state Department of Transportation.
The cost to cover the audit is from the operating budget and it is federal funding that pays for it, Winder said. The average audit takes about 10 days, and the results should be available to the committee at its next meeting, or shortly afterward, Winder said.
That prompted Miele to ask Winder why the transit audit is so much simpler than the city's.
Winder said it was because the transit authority goes through the Federal Transit Administration and is required to do constant reporting.
"It seems the city audit is a long, drawn-out process," Miele said.
The decision to select which auditing firm is chosen also prompted council member Adam Yoder to ask what were those reasons. Winder said he would have River Valley Transit's chief financial officer at the council meeting Thursday.
"A transit-based auditing company to audit the transit authority seems like a wise decision," Miele said.
Councilwoman Bonnie Katz said the committee would welcome comparison audits from last year to this year and the committee forwarded the resolution to hire RKL as auditor of River Valley Transit to the rest of council with a positive recommendation.
Also receiving positive recommendations were a resolution to allow River Valley Transit to buy a forklift for $31,271, which replaces a 40-year-old vehicle that may be transitioned for use at streets and parks department.