A little over a year ago I reviewed the budget in an effort to save the jobs of as many Police Officers/Civilians as possible and help the city as a whole operate more efficiently. During that time I found tremendous waste. In addition to the fluff of some line items, I found others that bore no relation to reality and were undervalued. After working with some Alderman, they voiced many of these concerns at the meetings and some were adopted. After it passed I looked at other areas of the city. The responses I got lead me to support what many leaders have said for a while, “Raytown needs a State Audit.”

One of the largest problems was both policy and monetary. Thousands of time clock changes that were unexplained. Including clocking in and out at home or remotely via cell app. The APA studies suggest this resulted in an over $300,000 loss a year.

I’ve heard we don’t need a state audit because we have a private audit every year. If we look at last year’s presentation, they rated us the highest category finding no issues and no recommendations (we just cut the PD 1/3). However, a month later it was revealed hundreds of thousands of dollars were missed in the audit. The City Administrator said the result was “somewhat contentious and apparently needlessly so.”

Some say we lost officers because we didn’t have enough money. This too is far from the truth, as the current projections show near a half a million dollar surplus this year, money that could’ve been used to help pay the salaries of officers that were forced to resign.

Last year the Board cut the PD, this year they cut the EMS and have started eating away at the reserves in 60% of the city’s accounts. I am greatly concerned what they will do next. We NEED a State Audit to help us identify efficiency’s, stop waste, and find out what has been going on with our tax money. This is why I requested the Audit, and this is why I am collecting signatures to petition the State for an audit as outlined by law. Please join me, AuditRaytown.com for more information.

Thanks,
Tony Jacob
Raytown, MO