John B. Kalb on the Fort Wayne Politics blog has a post about the 2007 Audit of the City Controller’s office. Â The report may be downloaded here and the 2006 Audit here. Â Harrison Square, Conflict of Interest compliance and High Performance Government Network top the items explored.
Harrison Square, page 7:
The Redevelopment Commission awarded a $637,387 public works project for the demolition of the Harrison Square site on July 16, 2007. Total payments made to the contractor for this project were $798,559, which is $161,172 more than the original contract. Approved change orders were not presented for audit purposes for $45,236 of the $161,172 increase. The $161,172 was 25.2% more than the awarded contract, which exceeds the 20% permitted by Indiana Code 36-1-12-18.
Conflict of Interest, page 8:
We noted the following regarding Uniform Conflict of Interest Disclosure Statements: The Internal Audit Department annually sends out requests to numerous directors, managers, and key employees to fill out a conflict of interest disclosure form stating whether they have a conflict of interest with the City of Fort Wayne. The Law Department collects the completed forms and checks them off the original list that was sent out. It doesn’t appear that all of the employees responded to the request. If the employees were important enough to be put on the list, efforts should be made to ensure that responses were obtained. The Law Department is also responsible for reviewing the completed forms determining if a conflict actually exists between an employee and the City. We noted no evidence on the completed forms that the Law Department had reviewed the forms and formulated a conclusion whether a conflict existed, as had been done in prior years.
No requests were sent to City Council, Board of Works, Park Board, and Redevelopment Commission. Â Timothy Pape, Council member, is an attorney with Carson Boxberger which does business with the City. Samuel J. Talarico Jr., Council member through December 31, 2007, is a partner with Barrett and McNagny which does business with the City.
We recommend that the City have all members of the City Council, Board of Works, Park Board, and Redevelopment Commission fill out conflict of interest disclosure forms annually.
Employees/principals of High Performance Government Network (Ryan Chasey, Kate Love-Jacobson, Joy Hudson, Lindsey Maksim, and Christopher Campbell) entered into contract, which included charges for 2007, with the City of Fort Wayne on December 27, 2007, while they were still employees of the City. No conflict of interest forms were filed for these individuals.
A similar comment appeared in prior Report B30477.
High Performance Government Network Contract, pages 9-12:
The contract with HPG Network was not approved by Common Council because it was under the $100,000 threshold as determined by City Code Section 37.17 Approval or Ratification Required. We have determined that the contract is subject to the provisions of City Code Section 38.03 Hiring of Consultants and should have been approved by Common Council. “Consultants” under City Code Section 38.03 includes “any person, firm and entity who executes a contract with the city or any of the city utilities for the purposes of providing professional or expert or technical advice to the city or any of its utilities.”
HPGN, page 10:
We recommend this contract be approved by Common Council before any additional payments to HPG Network are remitted.
We could not verify that the city received $95,000 in services for the year 2007 when the contract was only in effect for four days in 2007 (December 27, 2007 to December 31, 2007) and while the HPG Network employees were also city employees.Â
HPGN, page 11:
Conflict of Interest
As noted above, the employees/principals of HPG Network (Ryan Chasey, Kate Love-Jacobson,
Joy Hudson, Lindsey Maksim, and Christopher Campbell) entered into a three year contract, which
included charges for 2007, with the City of Fort Wayne on December 27, 2007, while they were still
employees of the City. No conflict of interest forms were filed. Following are the positions that they held at the City when this contract was signed and the date when their employment with the City ended:Ryan Chasey – Quality Director – December 31, 2007
Kate Love-Jacobson – Professional Development and Quality Enhancement – February 1, 2008
Joy Hudson – Administrative Assistant to Mayor – December 31, 2007
Lindsey Maksim – Public Information Officer – April 11, 2008
Christopher Campbell – Webmaster/Graphic Designer- May 6, 2008.
See Indiana Code 35-44-1-3 as stated in the Conflict of Interest Audit Result and comment.
There is an official response from City Controller Pat Roller included on pages 14 to 21. Â More on this later today or tomorrow.
Related AFW Posts:
2006 and 2007 Audit Reports
High Performance Government Network
Related Images:
