Officials from Melbourne Beach are taking state representative Randy Fine (R-Melbourne) to task over a comment posted on Fine’s Facebook page in November that accuses the town of “spending money secretly outside of the full review of the public.”
Fine, a first-term legislator who describes his political leanings as “very conservative,” delivered a tongue lashing over what he perceived as shoddy bookkeeping. “They have, in three consecutive years, spent money in excess of their approved budget,” Fine wrote. “(This) is a serious issue and has occurred in both the general fund and building department fund, and in multiple departments each year for at least the past three years.
“Disappointed to see yet another Brevard municipality … subject to investigation for accounting irregularities,” Fine continued. “This brings to six the number of Brevard municipalities – out of 16 – that are under some type of investigation for activities in just the past few months. In my district, 60 percent of the municipalities are under investigation.”
Robert Daniels, in his first month as town manager of Melbourne Beach, posted a page-long rebuttal on the Melbourne Beach website explaining the issue. He noted that Fine sits on the legislature’s Joint Legislative Auditing Committee. State Sen. Debbie Mayfield (R-Vero Beach) is vice chair of the Auditing Committee. The review of Melbourne Beach was part of “a standard procedure where there has been the same finding (corrective action on a budget item) not handled for three consecutive years.”
The last of those findings centered on the Melbourne Beach Police Department. Its spending exceeded the budget, with the overage attributed to vacation and sick time. A transfer of funds from another department took place after the town’s self-imposed budget deadline of Nov. 30.
“Therefore, no additional budget amendment could be made,” Daniels argued. “The transaction moved money from one department to another, balancing the budget. The town’s general budget was not over expended, nor has it been for the past three years.”
Fine doesn’t buy the argument. “They (Melbourne Beach) haven’t done the responsible thing. It’s systemic. A three-year, three-audit problem. It’s like three strikes and you’re out.”
That’s not entirely true, according to research provided by Patrick Steele, a legislative aide to Sen. Mayfield.
“There could be a ‘justifiable reason’ for not taking full corrective action,” Steele wrote in an email. He cited two scenarios to back the assertion: “An information technology finding could take an entity multiple years to correct, especially if it involves updating or replacing systems to provide additional controls. Or, a small community with limited resources may never be able to provide full separation of incompatible duties.”
Whatever techniques the Auditing Committee is using seem to be working. In 2011-12 there were 503 entities with repeat audit findings over a five-year span. In the four subsequent years the number of cases with repeat findings has continued to drop. For 2015-16 the caseload had fallen to 284.
Members of Melbourne Beach’s Town Council also weighed in.
Mayor Jim Simmons used an e-mail to constituents that reinforced what Daniels said. “As is true with any large budget, we have underrun in some departments and overrun in others,” Simmons wrote. “This is to be expected and, when it occurs, we ‘true the books’ with adjustments within our overall budget through budget amendments which are fully advertised and included in our Regular Town Commission agenda packages. We do nothing in secret, and to state or suggest otherwise is dishonest.”
Town Councilman Wyatt Hoover was less forgiving in a post on Facebook.
“This representative continually bashes local elected officials without having any details or knowledge of the situation on which he is commenting. Apparently he believes the entire state should be run from Tallahassee – where the corruption is tenfold!”