Hawthorne hit with $9,000 audit fee increase

Ups water utility rates with $15 monthly fee

During a special meeting on May 12 at Hawthorne City Hall, the commission discussed the city’s financial audit for the 2009-2010 fiscal year.

After replacing former city manager Edward Smyth, who was fired in December 2010, interim city manager Ellen Vause had her hands full with attempting to bring Hawthorne “back to life.”

The City of Hawthorne had been dealing with a number of financial issues and hired Sexton & Schnoll, a certified public accounting firm, to conduct financial auditing.

Vause said the city had many issues involving bookkeeping and numerous other financial aspects.

“The auditor was here to help with the challenges we’ve had over the past year or so,” Vause said. “But with all the recent changes, it’s been a little more difficult for them to handle everything.”

Sexton & Schnoll’s initial fee was estimated at around $19,000, but Tuesday night the firm requested a fee increase of $9,000, bringing the total estimated cost to $28,000.

“Because they had to do more leg work than they anticipated, they had to come back to us with this fee increase,” Vause said. “Their increase certainly is a financial challenge for the city, but we understand because of the past challenges we’ve had, that it is a necessary thing for us to do.”

Vause also said this sort of thing happens in cities from time to time.

City Commissioner DeLoris Roberts expressed her concern with how important the completion of the auditing process is for the city.

“With the financial situation and the current financial deficit that we’re in, we needed to pay them so they could go ahead and complete it,” Roberts said. “We need to know where we stand so we can move forward to become fiscally sound.”

Roberts said she has been pleased with the amount of work put into the process especially by the new interim city manager.

She said along with handling the budget, Vause is reviewing financial records dating back to 1995. Roberts made it clear that the city will have to continue to work at it, but with some dedication from some new faces, the problem can be solved.

“We’re moving along slowly because we are in a bit of a deficit. At least we’re making progress,” Roberts said.

Just days later at a May 17 commission meeting, commissioners voted 5-0 to implement an additional $15 fee on all city water utility customers.  With an estimated 670 users, the fee is expected to generate some $10,000 per month in additional revenues.