If the Brookfield financial audit for the 2008 fiscal year – we know, riveting stuff – proves one thing, it’s that it really helps to have someone on staff who, day to day, is responsible for making sure financial controls and accounting generally are completely under control.
Seems like an obvious conclusion, but in Brookfield from 2006 until 2009, that person basically did not exist on staff. Sure, it was the assistant village manager’s job, nominally, to see to the books. He was also seeing to the creation of a TIF district, overseeing the building department, updating technology, formulating a new village Web site. The guy’s hands were full.
The village did have an accountant working with village finances part time, but it clearly wasn’t enough. In 2007, the village added another layer of fiscal complexity by switching its fiscal year from a May-April schedule to a calendar year.
The result of all those factors became clear in the financial audit for 2007, which contained figures that appeared to make no sense or at least were in the wrong places. In essence, the audit said the village’s general operating fund was flush with cash.
Did that contribute to a false sense of security? We’re not sure. Village staff appeared to know that cash flow was going to be a problem toward the end of 2008 and really knew there was an issue by early 2009.
But the results of the 2007 audit made it completely unclear to anyone looking at it – the press, residents, you name it. It took a finance director with patience and experience to untangle just what the heck was going on.
The village, remember, had hired a relatively green finance director in mid-2008. She left with no explanation – while the village manager and assistant manager were out of the office – just a few weeks after starting.
We still don’t know why she left. Opponents of the village’s administration have wondered whether she was asked to do something untoward. Certainly the whole library levy fiasco was unfolding at that time. But our guess is that she simply couldn’t figure out what the heck the numbers meant. We don’t believe village trustees had a real clear picture of what was going on financially, either.
Assistant Village Manager Keith Sbiral on Monday night told the Landmark that the goal in sorting out the finances was singular – to make them simple to understand.
That’s as it should be. And now that everyone knows what the picture looks like -and it ain’t pretty – trustees can finally, finally start talking about what the spending (or taxing) policies ought to look like in 2010 and beyond.
The Landmark, for one, is looking forward to a frank discussion of the fiscal situation and solutions to what looks to be a long-term problem.