A former city worker went rogue and bought a $285,000 custom ambulance in 2022 without proper authorization, and the City Council quietly and retroactively legitimized the purchase the next year, according to a new report from the city auditor.
The purchase exposed gaps in how the city goes about buying some of its most expensive hardware.
Scroll down to read the full report — City Auditor Jenny Wong’s office first heard of the purchase through a whistleblower program the office set up in 2023. The report on the ambulance purchase is “the first public investigation report” the office has issued through that program, she wrote in a prepared statement…