Pine Lawn receives "fair" rating in new audit report from Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick

A new audit report from Missouri State Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick finds the City of Pine Lawn has several issues to address to improve its level of accountability and transparency, while also documenting the Board of Aldermen's lack of cooperation to implement the report's recommendations. The report gives the city a "fair" rating and notes the city needs to enhance its procurement procedures, eliminate questionable purchases, pay its bills on time to avoid late fees, and improve its compliance with the Sunshine Law.

"Given the concerns Pine Lawn residents had with how the city was being managed, the findings in this audit should reassure them that the city is in a better position than many thought and can certainly be on a path to being a well-managed municipality if city leaders take our recommendations seriously. Unfortunately, city officials have chosen instead to contest every finding in the report rather than work to address the issues we've identified," said Auditor Fitzpatrick. "The people of Pine Lawn should be concerned that their elected leaders are choosing to ignore our suggestions to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their operations. I urge the residents of Pine Lawn to make their voices heard and make it clear to their elected officials that they need to take the findings of this audit seriously and work immediately to put our recommendations into place."

The audit report identifies how the city has no documentation that city officials always solicited bids or proposals for procurement as required by city code and the city did not have controls in place to ensure personnel sought bids and proposals prior to making purchases. A review of 25 haphazardly selected disbursements, totaling $57,540, noted city officials did not obtain bids or proposals for 3 of the 6 applicable expenditures, including a consulting firm that helps with the annual tax levy for $1,600, fuel for $1,005, and lawn mower tires for $3,100. The city also sponsors events including out-of-town trips, luncheons, and park events and makes donations to charitable organizations that do not appear to benefit the city as a whole or to be necessary uses of taxpayer funds. As part of the events the city purchased food and other items totaling approximately $2,209 in fiscal year 2025. Charitable donations to organizations totaled $1,216 in fiscal year 2025.

The report also finds city personnel did not ensure bills were paid timely, credit card balances were monitored to avoid finance charges, and credit card bills were paid in full each month. During the year ended June 30, 2025, the city incurred late fees and finance charges totaling $1,595, including $1,219 in copier contract late fees, $190 in credit card late fees, and $186 in finances charges. Additionally, the city contracted bookkeeper does not perform timely bank reconciliations of the city's general account. The bookkeeper indicated when she was hired in June 2021, the city did not have any bank reconciliations on file. She started performing reconciliations chronologically beginning with 2016 and had only reconciled up to June 2023, as of July 2026.

Another finding in the audit identifies how the Board did not comply with state law as it failed to prepare meeting minutes for 7 of 8 closed meetings held during the period January 2024 through May 2025.

The complete audit report is available here.

Legal Disclaimer:

EIN Presswire provides this news content "as is" without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.