City Council Hearing: Biennial Audits Oversight Commission; October 19, 2026

The Biennial Audits Oversight Commission held a City Council hearing on October 19, 2026, to review three audits covering the Department of Finance, the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD), and the Department of Public Works (DPW). The audits identified 16 findings involving weak or outdated procedures, inadequate reconciliations and oversight, staffing dependencies, and inaccurate or incomplete financial records. Finance findings included an estimated $700,000 in pilot fees that had not been billed. Finance reported that, across a broader review of receivables, about $800,000 had been collected and $8.6 million administratively resolved; the latter included corrections such as duplicate or misapplied bills and was not all newly collected revenue. No contract awards or new procurement approvals were made. The auditor discussed weaknesses in DHCD hotel-stay PCard controls and city purchasing-card procedures, including transactions that lacked supporting documentation; officials noted emergency-services card limits may be raised for urgent needs and that these PCard transactions are not approved by the Board of Estimates. Finance also said it was nearing a contract amendment for a LexisNexis batch-search service to support collections.

City officials described quarterly monitoring of corrective-action plans, updated procedures and staff training, added staffing, improved reconciliation and review controls, and technology and revenue-collection improvements. Finance said several audit recommendations were complete, while other actions—including procedures for delinquent collections and a city write-off policy—were still being finalized. DPW reported staffing, camera, training, and cash-handling improvements, as well as efforts to reduce cash transactions and strengthen water-bill collections. The commission discussed improving consistent implementation of citywide policies across frontline staff and requested a list of in-person payment locations and whether online payment is available. The commission voted to adopt the minutes of its December 2025 meeting; no spending or procurement motion was recorded.