BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Buffalo Common Council is sending a letter to the state comptroller's office after the city comptroller failed to submit an audit promised by Tuesday's common council meeting.
Back in September, council members requested an audit of city employees on paid administrative leave. The common council requested this audit after our partners at Investigative Post did a story about a city employee who made more than $600,000 while out on paid administrative leave for years.
The audit was requested in September to make sure no other cases slip through the cracks.
A week ago, the City's Chief Auditor told councilmembers a detailed report would be given to them by December 12, and that didn't happen.
Common Councilmember Mitch Nowakowski spoke with City Comptroller Barbara Miller-Williams on Tuesday afternoon and she told him she has no issue with this letter going to the state.
"This has really been a back and forth, and I'm done playing personalities and politics with this when at the end, we really need to get to the bottom of this matter to make sure that nothing happened elsewhere, and so that's why we have a New York State Comptroller to not only see what the, our own comptroller has provided, but to go with a thorough review on this matter," said Mitch Nowakowski, Fillmore District Councilmember.
The City Comptroller also told Nowakowski that she expects to have the audit done in a week or two.
"The comptroller is finishing her audit on paid administrative leave and does not want to rush a document and is still working with her department to submit something to the common council, but has said that it has been a strain on her department and that she has multiple employees working on it, but that just tells me that there needs to be a higher entity to look at this and to give a more thorough review," said Mitch Nowakowski.
The letter will go to the state comptroller's office asking it to look into this issue.