Amarillo Is About to Hire Auditors to Follow Its Own Money
Thirteen firms answered Amarillo's call for a forensic audit of city finances. Leaders say no fraud has been found but they want proof.
Amarillo is about to pay outside accountants to follow its own money. City leaders say no one has found fraud. They also say they no longer want to take the books on faith.
At the Oct. 13 City Council meeting, Mayor Cole Stanley gave an update on the forensic audit the city has been working toward since summer. The audit committee is expected to recommend a firm, or two, by the end of October, which would put Amarillo one step from hiring auditors to dig through several years of city finances.
How Amarillo got here
The questions built over months. On June 23, auditors presented the city's annual financial report for fiscal 2025, and staff identified about $43 million in the community investment program fund that the council could allocate in the coming budget after closing out 159 projects, the Amarillo Tribune reported. That figure, along with the city's new chief financial officer, prompted public commenters to ask for a forensic audit.
On July 14, the council discussed a scope covering capital projects, water and sewer, and federal ARPA pandemic money, NewsChannel 10 reported. The station said council members and citizens had for months raised questions "about past financial records, including where funds have come from and where they have gone."
Stanley described what he wanted. "A forensic audit is just a formalized audit that digs down deep without some handcuffs and it goes in to areas where it needs to find clarity and it follows the money to the end," he said. He wanted a firm "to go through everything years past and make sure that the due diligence has been done to identify all those monies that we're now saying we're in possession of."
Not everyone was sold. Some council members said they had not seen any problems with the funds and did not want to spend money on an audit they considered unnecessary, the station reported. Councilmember Les Simpson put it this way: "To me, it doesn't matter if it costs $1 or $200,000. If it's worth doing, it's worth doing. If it's not, it's not."
The software problem
Part of the trouble is plain bookkeeping. The city moved to new financial software in January 2025, and staff said in August that it produced reports differently than they expected, creating cash-flow figures that needed correction, the Tribune reported. In March, Stanley said the finance department's switch to the new system had not been seamless and had contributed to delay the annual report, according to the Khaotic Digital civic timeline, which compiles city minutes and Tribune coverage.
That is not an accusation of wrongdoing, and no one has made one. When a council member asked the outside auditor in March whether the firm had found fraud, misuse or irregularities, he said, "No fraud or irregularities that we became aware of," while adding that this did not rule out problems that went undetected, according to the same timeline.
Where the audit stands
On Sept. 28, the audit committee decided to split the job into two parts, the water and sewer fund and community improvement projects, and to consider hiring a separate firm for each to save time, Stanley told the Tribune. The committee includes Stanley, Councilmember David Prescott, former assistant city manager Dean Frigo, Acting City Manager Andrew Freeman and Chief Financial Officer Lola Ogunremi.
"The audit committee should come back in October with a recommendation for scope of work and audit firms for each one of those two items," Stanley said.
The Oct. 13 council agenda listed a "Forensic Audit Update" as a discussion item, with no contract award, the KAMR meeting preview and the agenda show. At the meeting, Stanley reported that 13 firms answered the city's request, the committee short-listed five, and it hoped to recommend one or two firms on Oct. 27, according to the Khaotic Digital timeline's review of the city's meeting video. He also said he knew of nothing that amounted to a criminal or fraud charge. No action was taken. Dock Line could not independently review the meeting video before publication. The city's own council agenda planner already holds a placeholder for a future "Forensic Audit Agreement" award, with the vendor and amount still blank.
KAMR has reported that city leaders hope to finish the forensic audit and the regular annual audit by March 2027.
Why it matters
Amarillo voters were just told their water and sewer fees will rise 11% in the new budget, the Tribune reported. When a city asks families to pay more, it owes them confidence that the money already collected is where the city says it is.
A forensic audit is not an indictment. It is a receipt. If the books are clean, Amarillo will have proof. If they are not, it will know where to start. Either way, the people paying the bills are better served by the truth than by assurances.
Dock Line has looked at similar questions closer to home, including what a new county tax rate adds to the bill.
Hero photo: Dallas Peters via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0, cropped and resized.
