Despite being delinquent on its annual audits, the City of Indianola is hoping to salvage some federally-funded projects that were already underway before the audits stopped.
The city does not have a completed audit past 2017. One of the consequences of that is the city is pretty much cut off from federal grants, which has put projects like the B.B. King Road sidewalk project in jeopardy.
City Clerk Angela Goodwin asked the board this week to retain the services of Brown & Associates in order for that organization to help see some projects to fruition.
This comes, she said, after talking with Transportation Commissioner Willie Simmons about the B.B. King Road project and others.
Goodwin said as much as $550,000 is in jeopardy of being lost if an itemized list of things are not completed by the city within a year.
Ward 1 Alderman Gary Fratesi said the hiring of a firm for such work is not in the budget, and he said it would not help the city’s current situation.
“Nobody, including Dr. Brown, can do anything until we get our audits done,” he said.
The 2018 audit is supposed to be completed by Brown & Ewing by the end of this month. After that, the board seems poised to contract with a new firm to start the 2019 audit. Still, catching up completely could take years and tens of thousands of dollars.
The board seemed to be in agreement that they wanted to hear from city engineer Ron Cassada and South Delta Planning & Development at the next board meeting regarding any projects that may be impacted by this situation.
“We don’t need to get a professional service, we need to get Ron Cassada to do what he’s supposed to do. Then we can go from that standpoint,” Ward 5 Alderman Sam Brock said.
Meanwhile, the board tabled a discussion around Goodwin’s request to hire an assistant for the city clerk at a salary of $37,500 a year.
Goodwin said a secretary is needed for the city’s administration.
After the board met in executive session, they did vote to increase Goodwin’s salary from $55,000 a year to $60,000 a year.
