Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper’s office is recommending sweeping changes in the structure of the city’s financial management as part of a initiative that could be on the November ballot.
The recommendations come out of a “blue-ribbon” task force of outside experts that the mayor appointed after a series of unfavorable reports from national accounting institutions.
Hickenlooper’s chief of staff and City Attorney Cole Finegan told council members today that representatives from KPMG told the mayor, “What you have doesn’t work.”
After seven meetings and many presentations, the Mayor’s Financial Management Task Force has recommended the city create a chief financial officer that would oversee all of the city’s accounting and finances.
“Someone we can point to…and say that is really where the buck stops,” Finegan told council members.
That could mean major changes for the functions of the independently elected city auditor’s office. Currently, payroll and accounting go through the auditor’s office – something the task force identified as a conflict of interest.
Auditor Dennis Gallagher was out of town today, but in a presentation to the task force in June he warned members he was concerned the changes would hurt the city’s checks and balances.
His spokesman Denis Berckefeldt said the bulk of the problems pointed out by KPMG were on the administrations side of the government.
“Now they are saying, ‘We’ll fix them by rerouting accounting and payroll.’ You won’t.”
But he said there are some things in the recommendation “we very much like.”
