Greenville council approves emergency accounting contract, discloses auditor ties
GREENVILLE - The Greenville City Council voted August 18 to hire an outside firm for a 30-day emergency review of city finances, one day before budget session began.
The council approved engaging Grantham & Poole after the apparent departure of the city's finance officer left reconciliation, budgeting and entry work undone. A firm representative told the council the proposed rate covered 20 hours of work per week. Before the vote, the council member identified in meeting records as Councilman Al Brock disclosed a relationship between the firm and the city's existing audit firm, telling colleagues, "So, uh, just so everybody was aware, this company, uh, is, uh, connected somewhat to, uh, a local company, which is, uh, Bridges from Goodman, which used to be... They do our audit now. Uh, that's also had a relationship as well. So there's some connection there." The council approved moving forward with the 30-day engagement, to be reassessed afterward.
The arrangement puts an outside firm in charge of reconciliations, budget entries and financial reporting the city says it can no longer handle internally, at a stated cost of roughly $6,000 a week, at the same time a council member has flagged the firm's ties to the city's regular auditor.