We should all be worried ...

Below is information about our neighboring city. Why should this concern us? The parties involved are connected to Dacono. We don't want to have this here. We need to help our neighbors and that will help us all:

(Article provided by Linda Haney)

Oh Treasurer, Where Art Thou? Before Mr. Krieger became our Manager, Firestone used a well-established accounting firm, Clifton, Larson, Allen (CLA), to fulfill the role of Town Treasurer, acting as an independent third party whose job was to oversee the practices of our day-to-day financial operations. This was consistent with the Municipal Code and best practices. Mr. Krieger decided ongoing, independent third-party auditing was not necessary, the Board agreed per usual, and CLA was dismissed (2019). In their place, he supposedly shifted the duties to the Director of Finance. So not only was she in charge of all financial operations for Firestone, but she was also given the responsibility to oversee her own operations. This means there has been no ongoing third-party auditing for daily operations since this change. Or maybe the position of Town Treasurer was just outright deleted, hard to tell. Firestone Municipal Code, 2.08.010- Officers: “The Board of Trustees shall appoint a Town Attorney, a Town Treasurer, and a Town Clerk, and other such officers… for the proper government and control of the Town…” According to Code, the Board is supposed to appoint a Town Treasurer, who takes an oath to the Constitution, the state of Colorado, and most likely gets bonded because of the possible penalties as they oversee the disposition of municipal funds. Why does this matter? Here’s an example. First contact. On 8/16/23 I sent an email to all the Board and Ms. Clanton with some very specific questions and concerns. First set: “What are the Impact Fees associated with Central Park Master Plan and Neighbor's Point Park? From where (or whom) are they collected, and how does the public access information about these particular Impact Fees including collections, expenditures, and balances?” The second set of questions were more concerning though. On the top HR section of the Payables report, Line 8-16, Employee Bonus, has appeared in the template for years. Yet in the February, March, and April Payables of 2023, the line “Employee Bonus 8-16” is missing. It was present up to January 2023, suspiciously absent for three months, and then reappeared in May of 2023 to present. Also, the January Payable was never published to the Board. It is only available by CORA request and even then, does not include the top HR portion. Response to first email by anyone: crickets. Keep in mind the Finance Committee is chaired by Trustee Jimenez, and Trustee Doherty also sits on the Committee. They should be answering resident’s questions. Also, since Ms. Clanton wears the additional hat of Town Treasurer, she should be responsive to questions about suspicious inconsistencies, just like CLA or any third-party auditor would be. Second contact 1/17/24. When I turned in my Candidate Affidavit, I happened to meet Ms. Clanton, and asked her about the email, specifically the missing Employee Bonus lines, since I hadn’t gotten a response. She said she didn’t receive my email. Third contact. I forwarded the original email to the same recipients: the Board and Ms. Clanton. Response: nothing. Fourth contact 2/13/24. At the unelected candidate meeting, I asked several questions about the role of a Town Treasurer vs. the role of Finance Director. To summarize what I heard: that’s how we used to do it, but this is how we do it now. Problems: -It’s codified in the FMC that the Board appoints a Town Treasurer who answers only to them, per the published chart. -Acting as Town Treasurer is outside the scope of the job description for the Director of Finance. - To avoid any conflict of interest, this person should be not an employee who answers to the Town Manager, who completes their performance reviews and determines their salary. There should be a wall of separation between operations and oversight. -So here we are. I’ve raised legitimate questions and concerns and been ignored by the Board, Director of Finance, and Director of Finance/Town Treasurer. If CLA were acting as Treasurer, I could contact them and raise my concerns. Let them judge if best practices were followed. Instead, the Manager has sealed off financial scrutiny by keeping oversight in house, and the Board is fine with it. If you elect me as Trustee, one of the first actions I want to make is to reinstate CLA to function as Town Treasurer. Keep in mind for this action to succeed, there must be a minimum of three Trustees who vote for it and Drew to break the tie. If there are less than three it will not happen. If a different Mayor is elected and there is a tie vote, I wouldn’t expect a change to be made.