WARREN Development chief says audit findings are faulty

The city has paid more than $300,000 for performance audits started in 2000.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- Recommendations made in a draft of a performance audit of the community development department are ineffective or based on faulty premises, incorrect numbers and unfair comparisons, the department's director says.
Michael D. Keys said he met with and sent a letter to the auditors in March, pointing out errors in the report and asking for clarifications about some of the statements.
For example, in one table of the audit, which lists department expenditures, one of the columns is added incorrectly.
Few of his suggestions or corrections were included in the draft report received last week from state Auditor Betty Montgomery's office.
The audits covered community development, water, water pollution control and environmental services.
They were the last in a series of audits begun in 2000 for which the city paid more than $30,000.
Not finalized
The reports are in draft form and haven't been finalized or released publicly.
Jennifer Detwiler, a spokeswoman for the state auditor's office, said the audit hasn't been finalized so she can't comment on specific data.
Keys said he understands that, but it was distributed to council members and gives them false impressions about how his department operates.
Council members and the administration conducted a closed-door meeting with auditors earlier this week.
Detwiler said such meetings are to address concerns from city officials. If the city has supporting documentation that something in a report is incorrect, the auditors will make changes before the final report is released.
Auditors analyze data and compare it to the systems in peer communities to assess effectiveness.
Housing programs ignored
Keys is disappointed the audit doesn't address the department's many housing programs, which constitute a large portion of what it does.
That includes the housing rehabilitation program which has a 33-year waiting list, a fact that wasn't mentioned in the report.
"Half of what we do isn't even in here," Keys said.
Detwiler said the scope of a performance audit is discussed and agreed upon with officials before it begins.
The report also says the community development department doesn't track many of its programs and participants, but the director said the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which administers the federal money allocated to department programs, requires such tracking.
If the city didn't do it, it wouldn't get HUD money, Keys said.
There are some recommendations in the draft the department already has implemented. It suggests hiring a full-time director, for example. Keys was appointed director in January.
David J. Robison, who retired earlier this year, had been director of CD and the engineering, planning and building department.
It also recommends against a suggestion by Robison to combine the two departments. Keys said the city already has decided against that idea which he said was never a full-fledged proposal.
WRAP contract
He also objects to portions of the report that address the city's contract with Warren Redevelopment and Planning, where Keys was executive director fours years before being named to the CD post.
The report says that since 2000, the city has outsourced its economic development practices to WRAP at an annual cost of $102,000.
The city and the agency didn't sign the agreement until 2001 and it called for WRAP to assist the city with economic development.
Since the early 1980s, WRAP has received $50,000 in city Community Development Block Grant money to oversee downtown development, including maintaining buildings and design review.
The economic development portion paid to WRAP was $52,000, rather than the $102,000 listed in the report.
Before the WRAP contract, which was eliminated when Keys was appointed CD director, the city contracted with a consultant for $40,000 annually.
Comparisons with peer cities of Hamilton, Mansfield and Lima also are unfair because those cities' CD departments include more employees and managers, he said.
"It just tells me that the people who did this audit have no economic development background," Keys said.
denise.dick@vindy.com