The Santa Fe Governing Body held its first regular meeting Wednesday since it was revealed the city’s audit for 2023 will be late and not be completed by the December 15th deadline.
The city says the audit will now be completed May 15th.
Things got a bit contentious as City Finance Director Emily Oester presented her regular audit update that now occurs at every regular meeting.
Councilor Mike Garcia, who has been very vocal about transparency regarding the audit process began asking questions of Oester that others on the Governing Body began to object to. The decisions regarding an audit timeline comes from the auditors and not the finance director.
At one point City Manager John Blair defended Oester saying she has done an excellent job under very difficult circumstances.
“Director Oester is a financial unicorn. I would hire her anytime, any place, in any job that I have,” he said. “She is kind, she is brilliant. She is building a team. She is getting the city’s finances on track and I for one believe she should be celebrated for the success of what she’s done in the last year.”
Councilors still expressed their disappointment that the audit will be late again but most of them say the fault doesn’t lie with Oester. The late 2022 audit will be sent to the state on Monday.
Councilors say they have been getting a lot of complaints about the late audits and the lack of information about them.
Oester says there are many reasons why the city has continually been late and she has been working to solve those problems but it takes time.
