More detailed budget documents and records of financial oversight meetings will now be provided to the public in Concord after months of questions from a city councilor.
After months of scrutiny from Ward 5 Councilor Stacey Brown about whether there is sufficient oversight of how city staff manages reserve accounts, City Hall issued a firm and formal written response this week, defending its longstanding process while acknowledging steps it had taken toward public accessibility.
The records do not support Brown’s allegations of fraud by city officials.
Reserve spending has been at the heart of friction between Brown and the city manager’s office. The March report was intended to explain how the city’s Trustees of the Trust Funds align with state law, and put questions from Brown and the public to rest.
“I hope that this process and the significant staff time that has gone into answering these questions – again – in one space puts these accusations to bed and restores some public trust,” At-large Councilor Judith Kurtz said as the report was discussed Monday.
Brown maintains that some past uses of city reserves went against their appropriate use and made clear that she feels her pursuit of these questions has led to key course corrections and improvements in transparency.
“I just want to recognize that, when I raise my concerns, yes, I ask a lot of questions,” Brown said, thanking staff for the report. “I’m really grateful that we are making amends and changes and, going forward, doing better because I think that shows growth.”
While Brown has occasionally gotten rebuke for the policy changes brought by her inquiries – including in a letter of reprimand from the mayor this week – the accusatory manner in which she’s raised her concerns, including claims of mismanagement by the city manager’s office, have largely served to intensify her isolation on the city’s governing body.
Brown began raising questions last year about why Concord’s Trustees of the Trust Funds, an appointed board, doesn’t have more direct management of the money going in and out of Concord’s many savings accounts.
Generally, city staff suggests the ways these funds should be spent –including for intersection improvements, support for local festivals, and payments for a new clubhouse at Beaver Meadow Golf Course. The city council reviews those suggestions and decides whether or not they are good financial decisions. Those votes set how the money is spent and how much from the city budget, or in surplus at the end of the year, gets put into each account.
The Trustees of the Trust Funds are custodians of the reserve accounts, tasked with reviewing whether or not the council’s spending decisions align with how the trusts are meant to be used, as well as supervising the city’s investment accounts and financial documentation sent to the state.
Brown has argued that city spending in the recreation and economic development reserve accounts over the past few years, on things like the golf course clubhouse, went beyond the narrow definitions for those trusts. The city manager’s office has disputed her reading of the trusts’ purpose. While the city council approved that spending, she has speculated that the misalignment exposed the city and its trustees to criminal prosecution.
As an example, the economic development reserve was created for “investment in an office park, industrial park, or a civic center” but has been used more broadly for things related to sparking the economy, like an event grant program.
As a result, the council broadened the definitions of its trust funds in January, adding flexibility and generality to how the money within them could be spent.
When the Trustees discussed the definition changes in January, they noted that “that there isn’t much detail in the budget documents as to what the withdrawn funds will be used for,” and the city’s treasurer and finance director said more information and detail would be provided to them going forward, according to the meeting minutes.
Examining the recreation reserve, which is helping to cover the debt on the golf clubhouse, Brown noticed in the fall in a finance document that $100,000 had been moved out of the account since the budget was passed in July, leading her to say the money had been moved without council approval.
Budget details, which are public records given to the council but haven’t been provided publicly, show that the money was part of a regular use of the recreational reserve to support operating costs of the parks and recreation department approved as part of the current spending plan.
Such budget details will be given to the public during future budget deliberations, the city manager’s office said.
Another concern from Brown was the trustees not having a more hands-on role in executing the financial transfers they oversee. That may be the practice in most smaller communities, but in Concord, because of its size, that’s not practicable, the city manager’s office responded.
Additionally, the minutes for Trustee Meetings over several years had not been posted online, leading Brown to claim that the group hadn’t met for years. The group has met roughly quarterly, but until December, the minutes and agendas documenting those meetings weren’t posted.
Brown has also questioned whether and when the Trustees have approved financial documentation going to the state. The new report states that, under the initiative of the treasurer, the trustees have been approving those reports for the last two fiscal years as required by law. There is no record of those approvals in years past.
Councilors’ consideration of the report revealed a recurring dynamic between Brown and a mutually contemptuous relationship between her and city management.
Brown defended her persistent and detailed questioning as part of her responsibility as a councilor, saying she wouldn’t apologize for it.
Her peers have criticized her for making unsupported accusations in public, repeating her claims after documentation counteracting them was provided to her and for taking up large amounts of city hall staff’s time in the process.
