New finance director gives ’24 audit update – The Tidewater News

Jeff Deline, Franklin’s new finance director, provided Franklin City Council with an update Sept. 22 on his review of the city’s 2024 audit.

“Twelve days ago, we came in and I got a good understanding of where we were from the previous city manager, started making contact with the city auditor to find out what she knew,” Deline said. “I had multiple conversations with her, multiple emails with her. We’re passing information back and forth right now so that I can get all their information on how they prepared our financial statements and make sure that I’m looking at all those financial statements and doing the same comparisons.”

He said he was going to review all the trial balances from the woman who was the consultant at the time and who is still the city’s consultant.

“She did a comparison between Edmunds, which is our software system, our trial balances to the auditor’s trial balances, and then I’m going to compare those to the financial statements, read all the financial statements and then report back to the city manager on my thoughts,” he said. “But I’m also going to work with the auditor with any changes that I think might be necessary, and between the two of us, the auditors and myself, we should be able to come to a conclusion.”

He noted that he would still like to get an item on the council’s Monday, Oct. 6, meeting agenda for the auditor to make a presentation on this matter.

“And that’s our goal,” he said. “As soon as we get the ’24 (audit) out the door, that’ll be better for all of us, and then we can get the ’25 started. That’s what my update is.”

He opened the floor for questions.

Ward 4 Councilman Dr. Linwood Johnson said, “I think that is a good assessment. Without making an assumption of what’s going on, you’re getting all of the facts, because facts are the issue to deal with, and I appreciate you for doing that.”

“Thank you,” Deline said.

Ward 3 Councilman Gregory McLemore said, “In light of the fact that we’ve had two city managers within the last two years and there are major discrepancies in the finances, do you think that a forensic audit is warranted for the city to look at ’22, ’23, ’24 and ’25?”

“I can’t answer that question at this point in time,” Deline said. “I haven’t had a chance to go through everything I need to go through in order to give you a good answer. I’m sorry about that.”

“Thank you,” McLemore said.

McLemore prefaced his question by noting that he was quite impressed with Deline’s credentials, which Interim City Manager Lincoln Saunders had addressed earlier in the meeting when he introduced Deline to the council.

Saunders noted that, like himself, Deline was quite new to the city, having started only two business days before he did.

“He was here two Fridays ago, and I showed up the next Tuesday,” Saunders said. “Jeff joins us from Suffolk, where he was the comptroller. He brings a tremendous amount of experience in the public auditing space, so given where we are and some of our needs in the finance department, I’ve been incredibly impressed with how quickly Mr. Deline’s gotten up to speed with both the needs and the opportunities.”

In his initial comments before the council during his introduction to it, Deline said, “I appreciate the opportunity, and it should be a fun challenge, just by looking at things. Like (Mr. Saunders) said, I’ve got 12 total days here now, but that’s nothing compared to what we’re going to go (do) and go forward.

“I look forward to working with the City Council, working with the city manager, getting things done that we need to do,” he added. “So if you ever have any questions, please contact the city manager, he’ll have all the answers.”

Saunders said, “We’ll add that Mr. Deline has over 20 years with a public auditing firm, working with local governments, as well as an extensive career, including overseas deployments, with the U.S. Army.”