Call it the season of giving.
Second chances that is.
The City of Indianola agreed on Monday to reenter its previously severed business relationship with auditing firm Brown & Ewing.
The city fired the firm last year, citing a myriad of issues with the firm completing the city’s 2018 municipal audit. The firm has maintained that it completed 75% of the work called for in the contract and had previously sent the city an invoice for $30,000.
The original contract was reportedly for $40,000.
The Board of Alderman last month was adamant the city did not owe the firm any money, something that was backed up by City Attorney Kimberly Merchant who advised the board not to pay the invoice unless the firm offered a detailed invoice that chronicled the work that had been done.
The new firm (Tann, Brown & Russ Co) the city has contracted with to start the 2018 audit over from scratch suggested the work papers from the 2017 audit that are held by Brown & Ewing are essential to the 2018 audit.
In late November, the board authorized Merchant to negotiate with Brown & Ewing, offering the firm $10,000 for the 2017 work papers and all of the work that had been completed for the 2018 audit.
Merchant returned to the board on Monday and offered two options.
In one scenario, the city can continue to negotiate, perhaps offering more money for the desired documents.
In the second scenario, which Merchant called the “Path of least resistance,” Brown & Ewing would finish the 2018 audit for the full $40,000, with the work being completed by January 31, 2024, Merchant said.
Ward 2 Alderman Darrell Simpson raised issue with this proposal.
“Brown and Ewing are the people who’ve given us the runaround in the past, right? How do we know they are going to do this?” Simpson asked.
Merchant said she agreed but said that if the work is not completed, the firm would not be paid, and she said there would be other addendums that would ensure the city received its documents.
She also said that Scott Hodges, with Tann, Brown & Russ Co. said he understood if the city needed to go in that direction in order to get the papers. She suggested the city might terminate the 2018 audit contract with the new firm, and once the 2018 audit is completed by Brown & Ewing, the city could have Hodges get to work on 2019.
“It’s the path of least resistance. If he gets this done, imagine how far ahead this gets us,” Featherstone said.
The board voted 4-1 in favor of going back to Brown & Ewing to complete the 2018 audit.
Simpson was the lone no vote.
