Riverside administrator pleased with state audit report

On Tuesday, State Auditor Rob Sand released the audit report for the city of Riverside covering July 1, 2019, through June 30, 2020.

The report contained a number of recommendations for the city, but City Administrator Chris Yancey said that, overall, she is happy with the report.

“I know in the past, the reports would have pages and pages of recommendations for the city,” Yancey said. “This report only had a few housekeeping things that we’re working to address.

“I was very pleased with it.”

Yancey said that some of the findings had to do with changes that Sand has made since taking office in 2019.

“Things have changed a lot,” she said. “They have a lot more requirements than they used to.”

Some of those changes have to do with having an independent person review bank statements and the reconciliation of utility billing.

“It’s nothing we ever had an issue with,” Yancey said. “They just want an independent person looking at these things just to be sure everything is in order.”

The report brought up an expenditure of $1,550 for fleece jackets for members of the fire department.

The report said that the expenditure may not meet the requirements of the expenditure serving a public purpose.

“People have always done it,” Yancey said. “We just have to determine what public purpose is served, and we have to document what public purpose that is.”

Another expenditure mentioned in the report is $17,700 paid to City Clerk Becky LaRoche for rent payments for the Riverside History Center, which LaRoche owns.

“The rent comes up every year,” Yancey said. “We went to our attorney and got an opinion.

“They might have to do something different about the rent.”

The report brought up segregation of duties, noting that a different person should handle each different type of city transaction.

This is a common finding in audits of small towns because of a limited number of city employees, Yancey said.