GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Reiterating his criticism of a decision to downsize his office, the Grand Rapids comptroller this week sent a letter to auditors arguing the move sidestepped the city charter and was illegal.
“(T)he accounting and payment issuance responsibilities assigned to the elected City Comptroller in the Grand Rapids City Charter were unlawfully delegated to an administrative finance officer (CFO) hired by and reporting to the chief administrative officer (City Manager),” Comptroller Max Frantz wrote in the Nov. 5. letter to auditors Plante Moran.
PDF: Comptroller letter to city audit firm
The city hires Plante Moran each year to conduct an audit, Frantz explained in an email in which he released the letter to media.
In the letter, he wrote that the changes “resulted in deviations in the city’s fiscal operations from prior year periods as well as the circumvention of lawful charter procedures.”
In Grand Rapids, the comptroller is an elected official whose responsibilities include internal audits, city payroll and accounting services…