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State Attorney Submitting Century Financial Information To Florida’s Auditor General
March 26, 2019
The State Attorney’s Office is providing documents related to the financial condition of Century to Florida’s Auditor General.
“We recommend this matter be brought to the attention of the State Auditor General’s Office and that forensic financial audits be done for the past five years,” a recent grand jury report stated. The grand jury also found Century is in a state of financial emergency.
But so far, the town has not self-reported their poor financial condition to the Auditor General, and no mention of the state audit recommendation was made by town leaders at a recent council meeting.
“We are in the process of providing the grand jury report and information to the Auditor General,” Assistant State Attorney Greg Marcille said Monday afternoon.
“Although the Auditor General has the authority to audit local governments, such as towns, these audits are typically conducted at the direction of the Joint Legislative Auditing Committee,” Mike Gomez, audit manager for the Florida Auditor General, told NorthEscambia.com in an email. The Auditor General is a reporting agency and has no enforcement authority, according to Gomez, and he said the town “may be responsible for paying the cost of the audit.” Any findings would be referred to an appropriate agency.
The Joint Legislative Auditing Committee has not been asked by the town to review their finances.
Earlier this month, the grand jury found the Town of Century lost over $1 million in utility accounts in just two years, can’t account for over 40 percent of their natural gas, made loans not revealed on audits for 14 years, improperly borrowed about $3 million from accounts with a 750-year payback plan, and is a state of financial emergency.
NorthEscambia.com file photo.
Comments
12 Responses to “State Attorney Submitting Century Financial Information To Florida’s Auditor General”
So what happens if they ignore the grand jury recommendations, vote to spend 4K more on the gas department, send them to Texas–allow the council member to vote who has an outstanding loan and for all we know the Mayor spent taxpayer money on family air fare?
So they don’t report financial emergency to the governor or the JLAC and the Grand Jury is still convened, can the grand jury indite them while they are still watching their actions or inactions?
or is the grand jury just all bark and no bite?
Will the state intervene or let them just continue to operate like this:
“The gross mismanagement and apparent ineptitude of so many individuals at so many levels is so overwhelming that we cannot imagine any level of incompetence that would explain what we have seen.”
Honestly, this is baffling.
Richie, better yet, revoke the city charter altogether and just let it be part of the county.
The people of Century should have a Recall of the Election. The Mayor and Council Members should ALL resign, because it is obvious that THEY do not have a clue on how to do the jobs they were elected to. Better get dissolve the Council and have no Mayor. Let the Country Commissioners make the decisions for Century.
1 million in two years. How long has Hawkins been Mayor. I guess we need too ask Gomez if we want to know something about the town or the towns council. I think the mayor should get at least 25 years to think about what happened under his watch. A town broke and going down death row thanks to him. He should do the right thing and step down and take his punishment and let the town try to heal itself. I wouldn’t give the town of Century the time of day right now and I ashamed to tell anyone I’ve from here. What’s left here for the people. We all need to get out while we can.
Catman,
You may want to apply for the Century financial department.
That’s 3 words not 2. Ha Ha Ha
Wow going back five years. Two words come to my mind on this is “Hands” and “Cookie Jars’!
Make them pay the money back..and jail time…its stealing..
As I’ve written previously, I was expecting them to put in a hiring freeze and freeze all expenses not related to day to day business. Why wait on a consultant? They should already know what needs to be done.
Wheels just spinning. The town is in a death spiral, and they know it.
The level of incompetence, defiance, and indifference continues to amaze me!!!
The only answer to the Auditors by Century is we are going broke and dont care.
Mike Hills need to get off his butt and request it. Simple as that. So are they going to let the state prison. schools, businesses be at the mercy of this fiasco?