“Gross mismanagement.” “Failure.” “Problematic.”
These are all phrases found in a scathing report on Wilton Manors’ handling of its parking contract by the Broward Office of Inspector General (OIG). The investigation focuses on the city’s contract with Lanier, the company that handles parking meters and fines for Wilton Manors.
The investigation started when the city’s bid process raised eyebrows. No wrongdoing was found in that process, but it pulled at a string that just kept unraveling.
In the end, $108,000 of questionable expenditures were found during the tenures of two finance directors; Robert Mays and Pennie Zuercher.
The report states, “...the two former finance directors approved reimbursements to Lanier of $77,589.36 for inadequately documented employee wages and another $30,503.75 for unauthorized expenses.”
The OIG also found Lanier remained in possession of a $31,174.27 operating advance that was due back to Wilton.
On March 25, 2024, “Lanier sent the City a credit memo reflecting that Lanier applied a $31,174.27 credit to the City’s outstanding October 2023 invoice. On March 4, 2024, Lanier transferred to the City a vehicle that it was supposed to have given the City in April 2022.”
Lanier got a management fee in exchange for the services provided in the amount of 4.75% of Citation/Fine/Fee Revenue and 3.25% of all other categories of Revenue.
The report says this only affects metered space and lots. Collection of fines from tickets are handled separately from the daily count from meters.
Reconciliation
In simplified accounting terms, it means no one in the city was seeing if the amount Lanier said they put into accounts actually matched the city’s records.
The OIG report goes on to suggest that they may have been clueless on how to execute the seemingly simple task.
“While our investigation was still ongoing, the City provided us with records purportedly showing its reconciliation of City parking revenue that Lanier reported in May and June 2023. However, the reconciliation was deficient. ... It did little to ensure that the City’s revenue, as reported by Lanier’s financial statements, was an accurate account of the revenue Lanier collected and deposited in the City’s parking bank account.”
In addition to interviewing witnesses, including the two former finance directors, the OIG looked at invoices, solicitation documentation, contracts, monthly parking income statements, bank statements and a review of open-source records.
The OIG says the city didn’t verify Lanier’s reported revenues of $2,942,099.83 for more than three years.
“The city’s parking account bank statements for the same time period reflected that it received a total of $3,056,220 in deposits, a difference of $114,120.17 between the parking revenue Lanier reported and the deposits in the City’s parking bank account.”
The city tried to make course corrections during the investigation, but tended to show they didn’t know what they were doing. Once it became clear that no one was reliably balancing/reconciling the accounts, city staff pulled random dates and months to do some spot reconciliations. And even that process was deemed flawed.
Not Worthwhile
The OIG report states: “The City was unaware of any disparities because no one was reconciling Lanier’s reports to the City’s parking bank account. Mr. Mays acknowledged that he did not reconcile the parking bank account during his tenure, which was something he said he regretted.
“In the report Mays recounted having attempted to do so early in the contract but struggled with the tedious nature of tracing numerous small daily deposit transactions. As such, he decided that the effort was not worthwhile given the fact that the parking bank account’s sole purpose was parking collections.”
The city’s response has been more casual than concerned. A spokesperson from the city's PR firm replied, “Per the OIG’s final report, there was no misconduct by any City employee, no findings that the City misstepped during the vendor selection process, overpaid the vendor or paid for services that were not received. In summary, this was a reconciliation issue that has been rectified.”
One high ranking official inside city hall seemed blasé, saying it’s merely a reconciliation issue. Another said, “Mistakes happen. People are human.”
No one is accused of trying to hide, move, or steal funds.
City Manager Leigh Ann Henderson said the contract with Lanier is up in March 2025.
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