The City of Aspen is putting more financial safeguards in place. The move comes after an audit and Tuesday’s City Council meeting. Council wants a closer eye on money, and finances, handled by city staff. A review of what happened during a recent parking scam revealed a number of things. One was the Finance Department turned off a notification system that might have alerted everyone to the parking scam. Another was City officials couldn’t find a copy of the former parking meter contract until this week. Employees found it after digging through a Truscott storage area.
Council decided the City should follow recommendations for how to keep financial problems from happening again. Councilman Adam Frisch described his perspective this way. “We all don’t want to believe it, but we’re not a one room school house community any more. And so I think we need to make sure that we have robust systems in place that aren’t typical of a 6500 person town but of a $100 million organization. I don’t want to say business, but organization.”
That could mean hiring an in-house city auditor or contracting regular outside audits. Aspen’s Police Department is trying to find the culprits in the recent parking scam. As of Tuesday about two hundred accounts are being investigated. This winter's audit says local workers were likely to blame.
