LIHU’E — A financial audit of Kaua’i Police Department records by county Department of Finance officials of the Kaua’i Police Department (KPD) re-established that KPD had overspent its budget for 2004-2005 by more than $321,000, due largely to overtime expenditures,
LIHU’E — A financial audit of Kaua’i Police Department records by county Department of Finance officials of the Kaua’i Police Department (KPD) re-established that KPD had overspent its budget for 2004-2005 by more than $321,000, due largely to overtime expenditures, but provided no accounting details as to what exactly happened during the last two months of the fiscal year to cause the overrun.
The audit established that, while there are questions about the overtime, there were no improprieties, and that all overtime appeared to be legitimately authorized.
County Finance Director Mike Tresler, who conducted the internal audit at the behest of Mayor Bryan J. Baptiste, said he was concerned by the upward trend in overtime expenditures over the past three fiscal years.
KPD Chief K.C. Lum has been on the job for about 11 months.
“Overtime has accelerated a lot from (fiscal years) 2002 to 2005, with no end in sight,” Tresler said.
“There is an ability to reduce overtime without taking drastic means,” he said.
Tresler said this was the first time in county history a department had had a budget overrun. He said the county was legally responsible for making up the overage.
He said the normal procedure for department leaders who might be facing financial shortfalls would be to request a transfer of funds from county leaders through finance department officials, to be approved by the mayor.
Tresler made his findings known yesterday in a Powerpoint presentation before a special meeting of the Kaua’i Police Commission. He did not provide printed copies of his report to commission members, or to Lum.
Tresler said Finance Department leaders were aware of the overrun, and notified KPD’s fiscal officer by e-mail. The audit established that Lum was aware of the overrun as well. According to Tresler, the fiscal officer, who is out on sick leave, did her job.
According to the results of the audit, Lum reportedly knew of the overtime overrun and the need for additional funds, and was informed by his fiscal officer of the situation.
Lum said that, according to the May fiscal reports he had for KPD, the last he had received, department leaders had used up 90 percent of their budget, meaning he was confident there were funds left for the last month of the fiscal year.
Tresler said, “If you had 10 percent of your budget left in May, then you are in big trouble,” he said, alluding to what he called a payroll lag that Lum and the commissioners were seemingly unaware of.
“It’s possibly my mistake for not following through,” said Lum, adding, “we need to make sure our accounting methods are matching our funds, or we’ll be in trouble again.”
Tresler said the last month’s expenditure was closer to 12 percent than 10 percent. When Police Commissioner Carol Furtado asked Tresler for specifics about June spending, Tresler did not provide any. “It’s not something that just happened in June. It happened early in the year,” said Tresler.
Furtado then asked Tresler that, since he knew about it in his capacity as finance director, what was his responsibility in the matter, rather than as she said, “coming (here) at the last moment.”
Tresler said he was not one to shirk responsibility, but, “it’s clear that department heads are responsible for the budget.”
Lum, who thanked Tresler for the input, said he would seek to put in more controls. He also took responsibility for cleaning things up in the future.
“I have to find a reason and way to fix them,” he said.
Tresler added, “better communication is always a good answer.”
Among the recommendations suggested in the audit:
- Aggressively monitor payroll and associated expenditures;
- Outsource 89-day contracts to relieve overtime in the holding cell;
- Hire clerical workers to do paperwork (Tresler reported an incident where a police captain put in for overtime in order to check on his staff’s own overtime records);
- Fully staff the patrol unit (according to the audit it is down 24 officers);
- Communicate better with fiscal administration;
- Conduct a performance and/or management audit;
Dr. Ray Chuan pointed to the drop in crime, and praised Lum’s performance. He then asked, “why all of a sudden now are they trying to bust the chief?”
Horace Stoessel voiced his support for Lum, and his concern that the mayor and finance director are the parties responsible for the overrun, and were thus in violation of the county charter.
Activist Andy Parks said members of the County Council knew the KPD’s overtime budget was underfunded.
According to the audit, 40 KPD officers, or about 23 percent of the total KPD sworn officers, earned more than $20,000 in overtime. They represented 49 percent of all overtime payments; 101 officers, or 86 percent of sworn KPD officers, made more than $10,000 in over-time, while five officers made more than $40,000 in overtime.
Tresler, who made it clear on several occasions that the county supported the work of the men and women of the KPD, said there was one officer who made $57,000 in overtime in 11 months work.
Commission Chair Michael Ching said the hard copy of the audit report would likely be an agenda item at the next commission meeting, Friday, Sept. 23.
