City Controller audit finds “serious internal control and compliance deficiencies”

City Controller Rebecca Rhynhart’s office released a performance audit of the Sheriff’s Office custodial accounts — the bank accounts holding proceeds from mortgage and tax foreclosure sales. The audit covered 2015 through 2019 under Sheriff Jewell Williams and was expanded to include Sheriff Bilal’s first year, 2020.

The audit found the office “does not maintain adequate recordkeeping procedures to account for fee revenue collected,” making it “unlikely that the Sheriff’s Office remits all revenues and fees to the City as required,” and concluded the office was “operating outside of the checks and balances established in the Home Rule Charter to protect taxpayer funds from mismanagement or misuse.”

“The findings in the audit are serious and need immediate attention,” Rhynhart said. “They demonstrate the deeply entrenched problems in the Sheriff’s Office, problems that Sheriff Bilal inherited from the Sheriffs before her.”