DAYTONA BEACH — A committee of 14 state legislators will meet in Tallahassee Monday afternoon and vote on a request to launch an audit of the city of Daytona Beach’s financial operations.
In a Nov. 17 letter to state Rep. Chase Tramont, R-Port Orange, state Sen. Tom Wright requested that the Joint Legislative Auditing Committee consider the audit of Daytona Beach at its Dec. 8 meeting.
The meeting agenda item says it’s a request for an Auditor General operational audit of the city of Daytona Beach.
“Recent developments have raised significant concerns about the city’s financial management practices, and I believe a review is appropriate and necessary to protect taxpayer confidence,” Wright, R-New Smyrna Beach, wrote in his one-page letter. “Over the past several years, multiple issues have surfaced regarding the city’s handling of public funds. These include excess accumulation of building permit funds and the potential misuse and mismanagement of Purchasing Cards (P-cards).”
The Joint Legislative Auditing Committee is the same committee that summoned Daytona Beach officials to the state’s capital last month to explain why the city has failed for several years to spend down millions of dollars in excess permits and licensing fees. At that committee hearing were City Manager Deric Feacher, Deputy City Manager Jim Morris, Chief Building Official Glen Urquhart and Mayor Derrick Henry.
Henry said Thursday he will not be in Tallahassee for the Dec. 8 hearing. It’s not clear if anyone else from Daytona Beach will be there, either.
Feacher said the city has “not received any correspondence relative to their meeting next week.”
“The city has been consistent in our reporting to JLAC and will be ready to provide the Auditor General and her team access to any and all records and staff to complete their review,” the city manager said in a brief emailed comment.
Daytona Beach’s spending still under scrutiny
Daytona Beach’s tally of unspent permits and licensing money has hovered around $11 million for four years, even though state auditors have told city officials repeatedly they have to spend the money as soon as possible or give it back to the taxpayers and developers who paid the fees.
At the Nov. 3 JLAC hearing, committee members had unvarnished criticisms.
“This is going to have a ripple effect on every other request Daytona has, and potentially the county of Volusia in terms of how it’s perceived by those of us who watch the taxpayer dollars,” state Sen. Jason Brodeur, a Republican who represents Seminole County and a small portion of Volusia County, said at that hearing last month.
“The committee witnessed firsthand that Daytona Beach has amassed substantial and unnecessary surpluses in building permit revenues, well beyond what is permitted under state law,” Wright said in his letter. “The committee, alongside members of our Volusia delegation, have already expressed concern over the city’s inability to properly manage or justify these excess funds.”
Wright went on to say that the city has also made “questionable vehicle purchases tied to these excess funds.”
“These actions raise questions about whether spending decisions are being made to serve public necessity, or simply to avoid statutory limitations tied to permit fee revenue,” Wright wrote.
‘Vague justifications, inadequate documentation, questionable expenditures’
Wright noted that recent investigative reporting has detailed what he called “a troubling pattern of P-card irregularities within the city.”
“These include vague justifications, inadequate documentation, questionable expenditures, and internal controls that appear insufficient to prevent abuse or misuse of taxpayer dollars,” he said.
He said all of that considered collectively “strongly” suggests systemic deficiencies in Daytona Beach’s fiscal oversight and internal accountability. He said the state audit would provide clarity, determine whether state law has been followed and help ensure that public resources are being managed responsibly and transparently.
The request for the probe comes after Daytona Beach city commissioners discussed the Nov. 3 meeting in Tallahassee, and City Commissioner Ken Strickland said on Nov. 5 that “Tallahassee needs to mind their own business.”
It also follows two recent reports by city Internal Auditor Abinet Belachew highlighting what he has said are shortcomings and inefficient use of public funds for city employee travel and car allowances. Those two audits and the P-cards were discussed at length at the City Commission’s Dec. 3 meeting.
“We are not suggesting anything nefarious up to this point,” Belachew said. But whether it was “ignorance, incompetence or nefarious,” the end result is “exactly the same,” he said.
You can reach Eileen at Eileen.Zaffiro@news-jrnl.com
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Daytona Beach could soon be under a state financial audit
Reporting by Eileen Zaffiro-Kean, Daytona Beach News-Journal / The Daytona Beach News-Journal
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