Photo by Jon Anderson
The Hoover City Council on Monday, Nov. 4, 2024, discusses the merit of having a town hall meeting so residents can ask an outside auditor questions about a recent forensic audit conducted for the city.
The Hoover City Council on Monday night voted 3-2 to hold up payment of a $236,000 bill from the firm that did a forensic audit of the city’s finances.
Some council members said they want a town hall meeting to let the public ask the Kroll financial advisory firm questions about the problems uncovered.
Councilman Steve McClinton said he has received more than 250 emails from residents who are concerned and want to ask the outside auditors questions about their findings.
John Slavek, a representative for Kroll who gave the firm’s report to the council in August, said then he would be willing to answer questions.
But Council President John Lyda said he doesn’t believe a town hall meeting is necessary.
“The mayor and his staff have put together a very comprehensive list of findings and their responses to it and have made that public,” Lyda said, noting a report given by Chief Financial Officer Jennifer Cornett to the council on Oct. 21. “We’ve reviewed it in the meeting. There’s nothing else from my vantage point to share. It is a complete report that’s been made public that we’ve discussed, and Mrs. Cornett has committed to bringing forth quarterly updates on that. So at the next quarterly update, we will see exactly where we stand.”
'POLITICALLY MOTIVATED'
Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato, when asked by McClinton this past Thursday if he would be willing to have Kroll hold a town hall meeting to answer questions, said the city already had given its report. When asked again by McClinton Monday night, the mayor replied only “Thank you for your comments.”
After the council meeting, Brocato said that Kroll already has given its public report regarding the forensic audit and that the city finance director responded to questions with another report given publicly.
“This is 100% politically motivated. The city has addressed the Kroll report thoroughly,” Brocato said. “The findings were taken seriously. Corrective measures have already been implemented and underway. We have been extremely transparent and maintained thorough communication with the public and the council. Mrs. Cornett did a lengthy and in-depth report detailing the numerous corrective actions that have been taken and presented a timeline for outstanding issues.”
The city’s focus now should be on future progress rather than rehashing old discussions, the mayor said.“Continually bringing up this report is creating unnecessary division and, frankly, a waste of our staff’s time,” Brocato said. “The public concerns have been and will continue to be addressed through regular council meetings and other established channels.”
The main reason for doing an outside audit was to ensure there was no malfeasance, fraud or misappropriation of funds, and that’s exactly what Kroll determined, Brocato said.
Furthermore, the city’s regular auditor, gave the city an “unmodified” or “clean” audit report for fiscal 2023, which is “the highest audit you can get,” Brocato said.
The same people keep bringing up the same issue because elections are coming up next year, Brocato said.
It’s ridiculous because the city has some incredible projects happening right now, schools are fantastic and crime has dropped, the mayor said.“We have tremendous crowds showing up at the Hoover Met Complex. We’ve got a $120 million interstate system that we’re putting in. We’ve got a $24 million investment in the National Computer Forensics Institute. We just put in $24 million to refurbish the Hoover Met, wjhich enabled us to get the SEC [Baseball Tournament] for another five years. Our city was named one of the top cities in the country by USA Today,” Brocato said. “We’re killing their narrative because of all the good things going on, so this is what they will continue to bring up. It’s just fake news.”
Brocato said he’s willing to meet one on one with anyone to discuss the Kroll report.
TRANSPARENCY
Some residents said they still have questions and want to talk to the outside auditor instead of city employees.
Ken King, who lives off Ross Bridge Parkway, noted the outside auditors found a “boatload” of problems, including hundreds of folders containing potentially thousands of files deleted from the city’s servers, an overstatement of the city’s fund balance by $36 million in two consecutive years, poor systems and bad accountability.The mayor touting that there was no evidence of fraud doesn’t earn much trust with the public, King said.
“He wants to sweep this under the rug. He doesn’t want people to know the city’s finances were a mess,” King said “You can’t necessarily trust the fox to guard the hen house. That’s why I would much rather have Kroll come back, have a public meeting.”
Bluff Park resident Robin Schultz said the mayor several years ago published videos saying that transparency and accountability were core values of the city. Schultz questioned whether that was indeed true.
“$236,152 is not something that the people should not be permitted to ask questions about,” Schultz said, citing the cost of the outside audit.
Paul Hamrick, another Hoover resident who lives off Alabama 119 near U.S. 280, said he doesn’t think he’s ever seen anyone avoid questions on something as serious as a forensic audit.
“You don’t have a forensic audit because you’re looking for a problem. You have one because you’ve got a big problem and you’re worried about how to deal with it,” Hamrick said. “Why not have a public hearing and let people come ask the basic questions. … If you don’t have anything to hide, stop hiding stuff.”
Jon Kerr, a resident of Blackridge, said he and King find themselves on the opposite ends of the political spectrum on many issues, but he took notice when Brocato said King’s remarks in a previous meeting were politically motivated.
“Government transparency, especially local government transparency, is not a political issue,” Kerr said. “Government transparency, government accountability is not a matter of politics and political theater. You spent $200,000 of our money to tell us that we have problems. We have the right to ask publicly and to hold you publicly accountable to what those problems are and what the resolutions to those problems will be.”
It's very off-putting to voice concerns to public officials in public meetings and not get any response, any follow-up contact, no accountability and no ability to hold people specifically accountable for specific bad behavior, Kerr said.
Donna Mazur, who served on the Hoover City Council from 2000 to 2004, said she came to a council meeting 1½ months ago with questions, and not only did no one answer her questions then; no one got back with her later.
When she was on the council, council members would answer questions from the public, but now, people get no response other than a “thank you” for their comments and questions, she said.
“If a question was asked and we couldn’t answer it, we asked the department heads to answer it,” Mazur said. “You people have to realize, I don’t report to you. You report to me. This is my house. This is not your house. You’re only here because we elected you to be here. Next year is another election coming up, and you’d better look closely at what you people are doing because you are doing nothing, nothing at all. You ignore people. You are rude. You are inconsiderate, and I want to know when that changed, when it became that if someone is talking, you don’t have to answer them. … You have to answer to me and every other resident in the city of Hoover. We don’t have to answer to you.”
She asked Lyda specifically who made the decision that council members no longer answer residents’ questions. He thanked her for her comments but did not answer her question.
NEGATIVE PERCEPTION
Councilman Casey Middlebrooks said he doesn’t agree with some of the tactics being used by people raising questions, but he does agree with some of what they are saying.
“There is a negative perception by a portion of our populace that would like more answers, more transparency on this issue,” Middlebrooks said. “I think the answer you’re going to get is going to be one that shows that there were some mistakes made. There were some bad policies in place, but we have the right people doing the right things now to get us where we need to be. Some of those questions need to be asked and answered in a public forum. I think it would behoove the city to have an open forum where questions can be asked and answered.”
Councilwoman Khristi Driver said Kroll is billing the city for work performed and she doesn’t think it’s right for the council to hold that money hostage while people discuss whether or not to have a town hall forum. Those are two separate issues, she said.
Middlebrooks said he understands Driver’s point, but “the authority or power of the council sometimes lies with the checkbook. For those wanting a town hall, if we pay the bill, more than likely we’ll never have another discussion.”
Council members voting to hold up payment of the outside auditors’ bill were Middlebrooks, McClinton and Curt Posey. Voting against holding up payment were Driver and Lyda.
City Attorney Phillip Corley said the council certainly can ask Kroll to send someone to a town hall forum, but whether Kroll will agree to it is up for discussion.
