Americus City Council June 5, 2025 meeting.

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The Americus City Council heard updates during the June 5 meeting regarding the financial review by Nichols Cauley. McGuire, a Nichols Cauley representative, made a presentation the prior meeting.

Council Member Nelson Brown commented on the presentation. “He embarrassed the Council Members, he embarrassed the Finance Department, he embarrassed the staff.” Brown stated it was no reflection on the department heads. “What I’m finding out now, they basically do what they are supposed to do.” Brown commented on the Finance Department. “I don’t know where the slow down point is there at the present.”

The review was conducted without the city manager in order to be completely independent. Brown criticized the way the financial review was handled. “I was displeased with the information not being shared with all the proper people before it was shared with us.”

Brown asked Robert Taylor, the finance director, if the policy and procedures they had in place were good. Taylor responded. “I am fully confident that if we were to engage this or another firm to begin with 2025 these findings would not have happened.”

The report covered three main categories, with one involving signatures on purchase orders, or POs. Robert outlined the cause of the issue. “The bank reconciliations, signatures on POs, these are because of vacancies. There was no way for these things to have two signatures. Our policy indicates [an] approver and reviewer.” Taylor noted that McGuire’s job was to see if the policy had been followed.

Brown commented on the review. “We need to do this, but I wasn’t pleased with him.” He called the presentation unclear. “I don’t think that was good money spent.”

Mayor Lee Kinnamon reiterated McGuire had found no red flags for fraud. “There was, according to him, no suspicion of fraudulent activity, as far as he could determine from the scope of the information that he looked at. And while that may not be the answer that we would like to have, I certainly can respect that.” He stated that while McGuire looked at internal controls, he was not conducting a forensic audit.

City Manager Diadra Powell criticized McGuire. “You can’t make accusations in open setting and then come back and say there’s no fraudulent activity, because that is not what the citizens heard, and we had a packed house.”

Powell explained how internal controls for purchase orders would still work without a director. “In the absence of a director, you still have the department head and the manager’s signature on the POs.” Powell was provided a list referencing the POs that didn’t follow policy by McGuire, but said they couldn’t find an issue. “Our clerk even went back through her documents, piece by piece, everything’s signed.”

McGuire stated in the prior meeting there were errors found in journal entries, and that the system being manual likely led to errors. “When you write a check out of an account for another account, most systems will automatically make the journal entry to do the due-to and the due-from. It looks like you guys are doing a lot of those manually.” In the prior meeting, he stated that of the different disbursements they selected, 12 were missing an approval.

Powell responded to his claims. “The due-tos and due-froms that he said I was wrong about I was actually right. I’ve been in that department long enough to actually know what happens.”

Kinnamon said that since there were no red flags for fraud, he did not see any reason for further audit. Taylor stated that the 2024 audit by Mauldin and Jenkins would probably be finalized in the next 30 days, and that it would be much more in depth than the review by Nichols Cauley.

Kinnamon said that if they found something, they could dig deeper. “We sometimes get too caught up in the court of public opinion on Facebook. Facebook is not an adequate arbiter of the operations of the City of Americus. I realize that it’s public comment, and they are certainly free to speak, and I applaud them for doing so, but we based our decisions on evidence and facts.”

Ola Terrell, human resources director, also commented on the financial review. “The gentlemen did state something that was very concerning to the department heads here. He made a statement that stated credit cards were used and they did not have a receipt.” She asked the Finance Director for receipts in response. “I can stand here as your HR director and state there is a receipt with every purchase that was made with a credit card, whether it was a Walmart card, Lowe’s card or the two credit cards that we have within the city, every credit card had a supporting documentation, and I verified that myself.”

Council Member Nicole Smith said that the City Manager should have been made aware of the findings before the presentation at the City Council meeting. “If they haven’t been approved by our City Manager, they should not be allowed to stand up in these podiums.”

Council Member Kelvin Pless also commented. “Insinuation or implied information like we received, it gave a false impression.” He stated that the presentation impacted the public’s perception of any decision to raise department head limits on spending. “I was on board for increasing those credit cards, but it looked crazy for me to do it after that presentation.” He criticized the decision to make the knowledge public before briefing management.

Kinnamon asked how McGuire came to present to them and not management. Taylor stated that Jimmy Skipper, city attorney, set up the time for him to come back and present.

Kinnamon said they were unaware. “Once it was turned over to Mr. Skipper, he came and presented his findings to us, that was the first time we had heard anything or seen anything or knew who he was.”

Brown commented. “I just hope in the future we make sure the boss is in the loop.”

The Council also held the second reading for an ordinance raising the purchase authorization limits for department heads to $5,000 and the City Manager to $20,000.

Smith questioned Taylor about credit card expense documentation. “Can you say that everyone is clear on our processes?”

Taylor responded. “I can confirm that 100%.”