The Office of the Washington State Auditor gave the city of Blaine a clean audit for January 1, 2022 through December 31, 2023.
Audit lead Heidi Wiley said during the August 26 Blaine City Council meeting that the city provided adequate controls over the safeguarding public resources.
The audit looked at accounts payable for credit card uses, procurement for public works and professional services, open public meetings compliance and the city’s financial condition.
The auditors found the city took corrective action after the city’s previous audit showed it lacked adequate internal controls over credit card purchases. This came after the city had asked a former public works director to resign in July 2022 and immediately reported the incident to the auditor’s office after the public works director had allegedly spent $8,600 in questionable and misappropriated expenses.
“We want to commend the city for correcting and implementing our recommendations,” Wiley said.
The auditors did find two concerns with documentation of Blaine City Council’s executive sessions and the procurement process that it addressed in a letter to city management.
Regarding executive sessions, the auditors found some differences between the recordings and meeting minutes. For example, Wiley said the purpose for the executive session varied between the recording and minutes at times, and sometimes extensions wouldn’t be documented in the minutes. There was also an executive session that occurred in the recording, but was not documented in the minutes.
When looking at procurement, the auditors look at laws intended to promote openness of government and prevent fraud, collusion or favoritism. The auditors found in May 2023 the city procured a $307,000 agreement for architectural and engineering services that they said showed confusion between the city’s purchasing policy.
The city’s purchasing policy states all architectural and engineering contracts should be advertised and bid out, and does not indicate that using a roster is permitted, though state law permits a roster. The city advertised the contract but when it was unable to negotiate a price, it used a small works roster instead of re-advertising the project. City staff said it reached out to three companies for quotes, but had no documentation of that or how it selected the awarded firm. The city also added additional projects into the contract that weren’t included in the original advertisement, according to the audit.
“It’s a continued concern that we see and we recommend that the policy and our resolution be combined so that it’s more clear on what the processes should be,” Wiley said of the procurement process.
