Some councilors unhappy with audit progress

CASCADE LOCKS — The Cascade Locks City Council met at City Hall on Nov. 10, with Councilor Eric Keller absent. Their first order of business was to get clarity on the city’s delayed audits.

Jessica Luther-Haynes joined the meeting, representing the accounting firm Aldrich CPAs, which is conducting the current audit, along with current Cascade Locks Finance Officer Chantia Clarke. The audits initially fell behind due to a COVID backlog, staff turnover, and document disorder; Hood River County faced similar delays and was only recently brought up to date. Cascade Locks’ 2023-24 audit is currently in progress.

Luther-Haynes identified several factors affecting the delays. She recognized the turnover of staff as creating disruptions to the process.

Prior to Clarke’s hiring this past year, current City Councilor Marianne Bump was the last person to manage the city’s finances. When she retired in 2022, a replacement hire could not be found, and the city outsourced its financial management to an online service, NowCFO, which touts itself as an affordable way to avoid hiring full-time staff. This resulted in several years of increasing costs and poor financial management services.

Luther-Haynes explained that the lack of institutional knowledge exacerbated the current delays, and that under NowCFO, “Things were not being reconciled in a timely manner.” The city paid NowCFO $367,000 over the course of those years.

She also cited city staff as adding to the current delay, as documents and records requested by Aldrich auditors have not been provided in a timely manner. She agreed with Clarke, saying, “The books are messy going way back.” She further testified that organizing the books and the archives is more than a CFO typically has time for, and suggested that the city hire a consultant to focus solely on the audit work.

The council was torn between wanting the audits expedited and being reluctant to spend additional funds for something that should have been handled in-house. No decision was made following the presentation, but the problem came up again later in the meeting.

City Administrator Jordon Bennett, in collaboration with City Attorney Ruben Cleaveland, presented a draft work plan to address the criticisms the council had of his work. It focused on two areas, the audits and better communications, with Bennett seeing many of the criticisms covered under those two categories.

Councilor Tiffany Pruit immediately moved for a vote, saying “I do not approve of this work plan,” and discussion ensued. The first criticism was that Bennett had inquired into a consultant prior to bringing the idea to the council; Pruit argued that “it should be the other way around.”

Though the council handbook states that the group is to direct policy, Pruit feels that they should have more of a hand in how that policy is presented. Councilor Bernard Seeger argued that “his job is to do the research, then we approve or not.” Mayor Brenda Wood further added that there should be more specifics in the work plan, including goal dates.

Councilor Marianne Bump was noticeably angry. Her comments seemed to stray from the work plan, as she blamed Bennett for the continued contract with NowCFO, and that Finance Officer Clarke works mostly remotely.

“We have a Finance Director that will not come into the office,” she said, and argued that Clarke should be able to do the audit work. Wood added that city hall should be open five days a week.

Seeger reminded that council that they could not find someone to do the finance job. He also said they rely too heavily on contract work over hired full-time employment (FTE), and that the city should minimize contracts going forward to minimize the disorder. Bennett suggested a sub-committee of councilors assist with revising the work plan, and Pruit, Courtnee Keilman, and Bump quickly volunteered.

Next, the city’s rocky relationship with its Tourism Committee took center stage. The Tourism Committee had asked for a 12 month extension of its contract to provide tourism services to the city, with a plan for them to hire a consultant to help develop a long-term plan of operation. Several council members pushed back on that, with Pruit especially vehement, saying, “The museum’s not my problem,” and telling the council, “We put our neck out for the port several times and we got our heads chopped off.” She favored letting the Tourism Committee write their own Request for Proposals and take bids for tourism services.

Keilman reminded everyone that these are volunteers, but she agreed that having the current museum director writing a petition that includes her own job is confusing. Three councilors, Bump, Pruit, and Keilman, along with the mayor, voted to give the group a one month extension only; Seeger and Pete Happy voted nay on the single month extension.

The city council will hold a work session prior to its Nov. 24 meeting to discuss operational hours at City Hall. The work session will start at 6 p.m. with the 7 p.m. regular meeting to follow.