Written by Fort Thomas resident Steff Chalk
At the conclusion of the City of Fort Thomas audit for fiscal year ending 2024, the citizens of Fort Thomas received confirmation that the city’s published finances lacked accuracy. The audit summarized 8 findings that included: failure to comply with a Kentucky Revised Statute, process deficiencies, math errors, a documentation deficiency, internal transfers that did not balance and a $322,000.00 write-off described as “error of the past.”
Although describing the $322,000.00 kerfuffle as “an error of the past” sounds benign, it fails to capture the severity of the situation and true cost to Fort Thomas citizens. Citizens have been paying for multiple finance professionals (when one should have been doing the job correctly the first time), multiple audits (instead of one), and there is also a cost to replace the position with a new finance director.
This ‘error of the past’ combined with known pending liabilities of Midway, soil stabilization and pension spiking undoubtedly complicate the task-at-hand for future finance professionals. Citizens do not embrace tax increases when the financial deficiency is the result of poor financial management.
