(The Center Square) – Officials from the Florida city of Mexico Beach say they’ve taken steps to better safeguard taxpayer funds after a critical audit was released in January by the state auditor general’s office.
Mayor Richard Wolff told the Joint Legislative Auditing Committee on Feb. 10 that the northwest coastal city had fired and hired numerous officials, including the city administrator, the city attorney and a new accounting firm, along with adding a financial director.
“These steps are all part of an ongoing process that we needed to put in place based on a lot of recommendations,” Wolff said at the meeting in Tallahassee. “I believe we’re in good shape and I believe we’re actively working harder and a lot smarter to improve the things that the audit team has brought up to us and some other areas.”
The auditor general’s office will conduct another audit of Mexico Beach in 18 months to determine progress on recommendations from the previous report.
The city, devastated by Category 5 Hurricane Michael in 2019, was docked by auditors for turnover in key management positions; not filing audited financial reports as required by state law; procurement issues; and no procedures for communicating and investigating fraud.
From 2020 to 2024, the positions of city administrator, clerk and accountant were either the subject of a firing or a resignation three times for the administrator and accountant positions and twice for the clerk.
At one point, the city accountant was filled with a contractor based in Kentucky, according to Wolff.
The administrator position went 78 days at a stretch unfilled, while it took more than a year (495 days) to fill the accountant role.
“We had some previous challenges that caused a lot of problems within the city, within the council,” Wolff said. “I believe we had to rebuild a team and that’s where we’ve been for the last 10 months, along with everything else we’ve been dealing with.”
On April 16, then-Mayor Michelle Miller lost a recall election and was replaced by Wolff, a former city councilman.
Turnover in the city’s three main administrative positions also also contributed to late financial reporting against state law. The city filed its fiscal 2020-21 report 173 days late and 2021-22 report 362 days late.
The fiscal 2022-23 report hadn’t been filed by August and was two months late at that point.
Auditors also examined the city’s procurement policies from October 2022 to January and found $564,092 in purchases weren’t competitively bid. Most of that came for disaster debris removal and disposal ($250,000), fuel ($130,772), yard waste collection ($110,260), software ($58,060) and paving ($15,000)
