Selma City Auditor Bill Long, from the accounting firm Caston, Long and Associates, appeared before the city council at last night’s meeting to answer questions about changes from the city’s audit draft to the final audit.

“We’d like to refresh everybody’s memory (about) what a draft is,” Long said to the Council. “A draft is a plan, a tentative sketch or an outline.”

In the Sept. 15 meeting of the Council, Councilman Glenn Sexton said there were about 50 differences between the draft given to the council and the final audit.

Long disagreed.

“First of all, I would like to say, the information you received is totally erroneous and untrue,” he said. “There were not 50 changes made, there were only four (changes) and three of them affected the numbers. The fourth was a positive change so that wasn’t mentioned.”

Long explained that the audit was a stream of numbers, meaning that a change at any point in the audit would affect the entire document, as each line item was based on a previous number.

The four changes, Long said, caused changes throughout the document.

“It seems to be a basic rule of arithmetic that was forgotten,” he said. “If you change a number in a stream, it changes your totals and subtotals.”

Long said most of the four changes came from a difference in expected tax revenue and actual revenue.

“The report was changed basically between receivables and income,” Long said. “The change was brought about because of accrual that had originally been made and that accrual was made incorrectly. The accrual basically affected property tax for the year 2003-2004, that’s what the original amount, basically $1.6 million came from. Income on a fund balance can only be counted when it’s measurable and available. That money was measurable but it was not available so we had to take it back out.”

Sexton asked why the changes were necessary.

“I just explained that, sir,” Long said.

“When you gave us the draft, you told us all the figures were in stone and nothing would be changed,” Sexton said. “Which one is right? Is the draft right or the actual audit?”

When Long reacted to the question, Sexton added, “You’re the one that messed it up, we didn’t.”

“I did what?” Long asked.

“You’re the one that made the mistake,” Sexton said.

“First of all this draft came about because why? Certain members of this council were pushing to get this thing in a sense before it was even ready so don’t tell me it was my mistake,” Long said.

The audit report, which is usually ready by early March, was five months late this year due to several circumstances.

The city changed over to the state-mandated GASB-34 system but previous city workers had allegedly made no preparations for that change despite two years warning.

That combined with extreme turnover in the city finance department left Long and current City Finance Director Cynthia Mitchell in an impossible position of sorting out the mess.

Mayor James Perkins Jr. was quick to remind the council that none of the mess that delayed the audit was Mitchell’s doing.

Mitchell only served the last month of the fiscal year.

Long answered another question from Sexton then went back to his seat.

“That’s basically it as far as my report is going,” Long said.

Councilwoman Rita-Sims Franklin asked about a statement of revenue and a discrepancy in the stated beginning balances.

“I don’t understand how you can change beginning balance,” Franklin said. “A bank balance is a bank balance. That’s cash.”

From his seat, Long said it wasn’t.

Afterwards, Long said some of the questioning was of a vengeful nature.

Long said that earlier in the term, some city council members were using discretionary funds improperly.

He said the funds were supporting organizations and churches not allowed under law. He said the questions about the audit are a form of vengeance.

Council President George Evans tried to calm the situation down

He thanked Long for the report and proposed the incoming council possibly set aside a work session to iron out any issues in the audit.

“The new council certainly has a huge responsibility to make sure we find a benchmark for where we are and where we going,” Evans said. “It’s a tough situation. I don’t see at this point where we can accomplish anything tonight.”

Councilwoman Bennie Ruth Crenshaw said she felt that Long was the “fall guy” for the city’s financial situation and the problems were deeply rooted in the past.

“If this much attention had been paid to the budget 10 years ago, we probably wouldn’t be trying to find the money,” she said. “I’m glad you made us accountable for all our funds. I just want to say thank you for trying to straighten something out.”

Mayor Perkins also took offense at the questioning directed at Long.

“I took exception to the ‘you messed it up, which one’s right’ statement,” he said. “I thought it was inappropriate and out of order.”

Both Evans and councilwoman Nancy Sewell said it is important for council members to be able to ask questions.

“The fact remains that any councilmember has the right to ask a question about something they don’t understand,” Evans said. “Whether it’s personal or business, you’ll have to determine that on your own. There are a lot of unanswered questions that need to be answered at some time.”

“I don’t want the new council members to feel we shouldn’t ask questions,” Sewell said. “The constituents expect that you ask questions.”

Evans said it might be a good idea to post the audit on the city’s Web site for citizens to review.