Audit: No proof tickets adjusted
Parking Division processes criticized
A forensic audit of the city of Santa Fe Parking Division found no documentation to support “adjustments” made to at least two dozen parking tickets during the past several years, including seven by a parking division manager to her own citations.
The audit by Moss Adams also found numerous problems with division policies and procedures, including “no controls to prevent a user with access from adjusting citations without authorization and no controls in place to detect such an adjustment.”
The audit, by Moss Adams LLP, was released Wednesday.
The city hired the firm after allegations of wrongdoing surfaced last year when a former Parking Division worker made charges of ticket-fixing, including for City Manager Robert Romero, and other problems.
The allegations were forwarded to State Police, who declined to pursue them, suggesting the city consider a forensics audit instead.
City police reports indicate the allegations surfaced as part of a broader investigation of embezzlement in the Parking Division. Those problems — police say one employee, now deceased, took as much as $300,000 in parking meter change — were not examined in the forensic audit.
Moss Adams was tasked with looking at whether inappropriate changes were made to parking tickets, with special consideration given to Romero and parking administrative manager Jacqueline Lucero.
Auditors reviewed records from Jan. 1, 2005, to Dec. 31, 2012, a time period in which more than 278,000 parking citations issued, according to the report.
Moss Adams “analyzed those citations to identify citations that had been adjusted, waived, zeroed out, or were issued to a City employee” and ended up taking a closer look at 249 citations. Of those, auditors found that 25 tickets had been changed without documentation to support the adjust-
ments. The potential financial loss to the city is $2,888, according to the report.
Overall, “we noted no instances where evidence documented that policy was directly violated, e.g. an adjustment that clearly was unauthorized” but “we cannot appropriately determine in (the 25 citation) cases whether policy was violated,” the report said.
Valid permit
Auditors found that Romero had been given 13 citations since 2005. Of those, five tickets issued in 2006 and 2007 were “adjusted down to zero” by Lucero. Auditors said these citations were issued on Federal Place, near City Hall. However, Romero was a department director at the time and “would have been issued an official City Business Permit by the Parking Division.”
“These tickets were issued during working hours, where he would have been permitted to park at any meter with display of the permit,” the audit said.
In addition, two of Romero’s citations were voided with the notation “Officer Error-Valid Permit,” two citations were paid, one citation was changed to a warning, and one citation was taken by the Parking Division to Municipal Court, where it was dismissed.
“I am pleased, but not surprised, by the audit findings. The findings are consistent with what I have said all along. We will move forward quickly with implementing the recommendations,” Romero said in an emailed statement.
In a phone conversation, Romero reiterated that he had a city parking permit and, when he gave his tickets to Parking Division staff, he assumed they were following correct procedure in getting them dismissed by the Municipal Court judge. Only that judge can formally dismiss a parking citation.
Romero said he became aware of his unpaid tickets when the parking allegations arose last year, but chose not to do anything about them until the audit was complete. He said he planned to pay both tickets Wednesday.
Record ‘issues’
Auditors found that Lucero adjusted seven of her own parking tickets “down to zero” but could find no documentation supporting the changes. Overall, Lucero had 17 tickets during the time period reviewed, 10 of which were not paid in full, according to the report.
Lucero did not return a message seeking comment.
Auditors also found two unsupported changes made to tickets issued to Parking Division operations manager Albert Martinez. Of the remaining citations, 10 were issued to individuals who aren’t employed by the city. Auditors couldn’t find names for another six.
Romero declined to comment on Lucero. He said it’s a personnel issue and he doesn’t have enough information yet on the situation.
Auditors said that, through interviews, they found a citation issued against Romero’s ex-wife, but the ticket was paid and they didn’t pursue the matter.
Auditors also found nine “issues” with how the Parking Division maintains its financial records. Among other things, the division doesn’t have procedures and controls in place to ensure that citations aren’t inappropriately changed and doesn’t provide clear guidance on how to treat citations given to city employees.
Notably, “we noted no controls to prevent a user with access from adjusting citations without authorization and no controls in place to detect such an adjustment,” the audit said.
Also, the Parking Division doesn’t record transactions consistently, lacks sufficient controls to detect citations inappropriately f lagged as appealed in court, doesn’t have procedures in place to detect problems with manually entered citations, lacks procedures ensuring that user access to computer systems is adequately assigned and monitored, and inappropriately relies on Municipal Court to maintain documentation for some tickets.
Also, current procedures don’t ensure that the police department provides citations to the Parking Division in a timely manner.
Looking at audit
Parking Division Director Sevastian Gurule said he’s reviewing the audit and plans to immediately focus on policies regarding how parking citations are issued and adjudicated and how those policies are monitored and discrepancies detected.
“I think it’s an opportunity for us to grow and to strengthen the services we provide,” Gurule said.
Moss Adams said it conducted the audit using information obtained from interviews with city staff and elected officials, reviewing records and supporting documentation and “walkthroughs of relevant transaction cycles.”
“Had we performed additional procedures, other matters might have come to our attention that would have been reported to you,” the report noted.
The audit also noted that some employees “were hesitant to disclose information in fear of retaliation” and that interviews yielded varying opinions on the substance of the allegations. However, there was enough to convince auditors that the allegations had at least some merit.
SFPD detective reports circulated to news organizations last year alleged that Romero had the Parking Division dismiss his parking tickets. The reports also said that Romero and Police Chief Ray Rael were informed of possible financial wrongdoing in the troubled Parking Division years ago but didn’t do anything about it.
Romero denied having his tickets dismissed and said a former Parking Division employee did approach him about “stuff going on” there but did not provide any details.
Rael said he was never told about the Parking Division problems or alleged illegal ticket dismissals.