City Signs 3-Month Contract to Catch Up on Audits

The Olney City Council on Feb. 24 approved a three-month contract with an outside accounting firm in an effort to break a persistent logjam in the city’s audit process and bring overdue financial reports up to date.

Council members voted unanimously to hire Doug Martella and ZacFinance to assist City Secretary Tammy Hourigan with audit preparation for fiscal years 2024 and 2025.

Mayor Rue Rogers said the firm comes highly recommended and has experience working with FundView, the city’s accounting software, as well as with Olney’s independent auditor.

“This group has worked with our auditor, so they come highly recommended,” Mayor Rogers said. “We’ve got everything caught up to October 1 of 2023. The real time delay and work really was cleaning up the mess from years past, getting all the way up to 2022. We’re in a much better spot.”

The contract is structured as a threemonth engagement, with the option to extend if necessary.

Olney’s audit delays have been an ongoing issue, largely tied to past software changes and staffing turnover.

Ms. Hourigan told the Council she learned about the firm through Lakeside City, which had faced an even steeper challenge.

“They had seven years that they had to deal with, so we’re not anything like that,” she said.

Much of Olney’s cleanup work has already been handled by Mathis, West & Huffines, but progress slowed after a key staff member familiar with Fund-View left for an audit position with the City of Wichita Falls.

The new firm would not conduct the audit itself — that remains the responsibility of the city’s independent auditor — nor would it replace Ms. Hourigan’s role. Instead, Martella and ZacFinance will focus on reconciling accounts, cleaning up past carryover issues and organizing financial documents so the auditor can complete reviews more efficiently.

“This is just something to help us get everything finished and ready to where David Parkman can just take it and run with it and be ready for it,” Ms. Hourigan said.

Council member Thea Sullivan, a certified public accountant, said the most recent audit year was particularly complicated due to the city’s transition to new software.

She noted that Mathis West had been assisting multiple cities at the time, which contributed to delays.

The city’s auditor had suggested exploring other firms with stronger Fund-View expertise, she said.

“Some of the other cities have kind of switched to them and they’re able to keep stuff more up to date quickly,” Sullivan said. “We can have a better momentum maybe if we try, if we use them and get us caught back up.”

Ms. Hourigan said that three months should be sufficient to determine whether the city is back on track.

“Three is definitely a good start point,” she said. “Hopefully by three it’s finished and done.”