Share
STAMFORD – The troubled controller’s office has a new chief.
Teresa Viscariello, who has been the city’s internal auditor since 2012, took the helm on Monday.
But the city has not quite let go of the previous controller, David Yanik, even though he delivered the annual audit to the state a year late, at nearly triple the expected cost, jeopardizing the city’s AAA credit rating, borrowing power, and government grants.
Still, Yanik was hired back at $128 an hour shortly after he retired last month, Director of Administration Ben Barnes told the Board of Finance.
The controller’s office, which handles all the city’s financial accounting, is swamped with work and short one accountant, with another out on family leave, Barnes said, and Yanik “is a certified public accountant with knowledge of our accounts, and so has been completing some tasks.”
Barnes said the quality of Yanik’s work under his post-employment $20,450 contract “has been fine.” Barnes said he, staff members and the city’s outside auditor reviewed some of the work.
“Under this agreement,” Barnes said, Yanik’s work “has been of a different nature than his work as controller. He has not been directing the progress of the ongoing audit functions nor taking responsibility for managing the city’s general ledger,” Barnes said.
“Those duties were reassigned on March 1, the date of his retirement.”
Finance board Vice Chair Mary Lou Rinaldi called it “a terrible move.”
Rinaldi, who heads the board’s Audit Committee, repeatedly called out Yanik’s office last year, when the 2022 state-mandated audit, due in December 2022, failed to appear month after month.
“I find it unconscionable … that we’re paying him now to do the things he should have done before, and didn’t,” Rinaldi said.
Barnes said Yanik has been working on a complicated audit of the Stamford Water Pollution Control Authority, toggling between the city’s old software, HTE, and its new Oracle program. Yanik completed a draft audit of the WPCA, Barnes said.
“He has 10 or 12 hours remaining on his contract to help the new controller … during her transition. We can amend the contract with him if there are tasks he is best equipped to complete, but we have not done so and I don’t have any firm plans now to do so,” Barnes said. “I want to give the new controller the opportunity to direct any future efforts by David or any of the other consultants.”
The finance board expressed confidence in Viscariello, voting unanimously to give her the controller’s position, which pays $186,500 a year, according to Mayor Caroline Simmons’ proposed 2024-25 budget.
“I want to congratulate you and thank you for your hard work,” finance board member Laura Burwick told Viscariello. “The board has seen your reporting and finds it tremendously helpful.”
Viscariello is a certified public accountant and chartered global management accountant, according to a statement from Simmons.
Before taking the internal auditor job with the city 12 years ago, Viscariello worked in the private sector, including Noble Americas Corp., UBS Investment Bank, and GE Capital, the statement says.
As Stamford’s internal auditor, Viscariello analyzed the accounts and operations of departments citywide.
Now Viscariello must complete the 2023 audit, which was due last December, and the 2024 audit, which is due this December.
Under Connecticut law, each municipality must hire an independent outside auditor to conduct an Annual Comprehensive Financial Report.
Stamford’s auditor, RSM, was contracted to deliver the 2022 audit for $345,000. But city departments did not provide the data RSM needed, causing repeated delays. The final cost, still being figured, will be about $1 million.
The city anticipated that RSM would need 2,100 hours to compile the audit, but it took 5,773 hours. It was completed in December.
The city has a history of late audits that goes back at least a dozen years. Previous independent auditors have reported sloppy financial practices by city departments.
RSM auditors wrote in their 2022 report that city financial information was inaccurate. Departments were not following financial reporting procedures; failed to store information or file monthly or quarterly reports; and some city employees don’t understand accounting practices, RSM found.
The city, which collects nearly $650 million in taxes, was not regularly reconciling revenue with payouts on its bills, RSM reported.
Barnes inherited the situation when he took the director’s post in September.
Viscariello told the Board of Finance that she and Barnes are working on the problems, loading documents RSM needs into an RSM database to ensure that accounts are reconciled and reported.
“We can see the status as we go along. It’s been a game-changer,” Viscariello said.
She’s holding weekly meetings with key staff members and planning checklists for RSM, she said. If information is more than a week late, the task is reassigned, she said.
She and Barnes are reviewing the skills of staff members. Barnes said he will offer more training on the new Oracle software.
There are talented staff members, Viscariello said. Coordinating them and external consultants is vital “to making the workflow more efficient,” she said.
“Communication is key,” Viscariello said. “I’m a big proponent of that.”
Barnes said he agrees with Board of Finance members who’ve said there is a need for greater accountability. He and Viscariello are working “to establish more clear goals and objectives for employees and building in formal evaluations,” Barnes said.
It will take some effort to reverse the years of negative news about financial reporting procedures.
In February, when Barnes went to the finance board to request more money to pay RSM, Chair Richard Freedman said the work “should not have been done by expensive people billing by the hour. It should have been done by city employees who are on the payroll. This is, ultimately, the price of incompetence.”