In a special meeting of the San Jacinto City Council on Feb. 8, the council decided to seek a peer review of an audit that included development processes in San Jacinto.

After evaluation, the council decided the audit performed by outside auditing firm EP Forensic & Evaluation Services from Ontario was incomplete. The council agreed that the report was not what the council had requested and was unsupported by evidence, unresponsive, and unacceptable.

For example, on page two of the report under the heading "Objectives of the Engagement," the firm stated the director of public works expanded the objectives in the RFP (requests for proposals) to include two additional goals. The first was to determine if corruption exists in the city in addition to what is already known and the second was to demonstrate that the "Holgate situation" can never happen again.

The "Holgate situation" refers to the four San Jacinto City Council members and developer Stephen Holgate who were indicted in 2009 for bribery and other corrupt political dealings.

However, the director nor any other city staff members ever gave such directions to the firm according to the staff report compiled by San Jacinto Public Works Director Mike Emberton.

"Let's hit the monkey on the head," said San Jacinto Mayor Andrew Kotyuk. "The project was manipulated to serve a different agenda than what the majority of Council requested."

The audit report, which began in August of 2011, was meant to review several city procedures and policies and make recommendations on how to improve upon them and also ensure that they complied with legal requirements and best practices.

The report concluded that there is no evidence of corruption or criminal activity on the part of the city staff.

Thus far, the city has paid EP Forensic & Evaluation Services $37,000 of the not-to-exceed contract amount of $50,000.

According to Emberton, the city still owes $11,000 in the initial contract. The firm is also seeking an additional $5,000 above the contract price to cover additional costs.

The council members agreed that some processes should be updated in regard to development and that the city should not pay the balance amount to the audit firm. The processes to be improved were identified by the ad-hoc committee due to the lack of sufficient recommendations by the auditor.

Kotyuk pointed out there were other errors in the audit as well.

There portlacked recommendations about the development process, which was one of the main assets the city was hoping to gain from the audit. Kotyuk said the city will look closer at policies regarding development.

"A few of the major errors in the audit that discredited and disqualified the auditor in the opinion of the Council was mi s interpretat ion of government code and applying the wrong governing rules to build assumptions of corruption," Kotyuk said.

Another error included the involvement of Councilman Di Memmo which the auditor quoted as "akward" and "uncomfortable" to the outside legal council. Kotyuk said that even though the report showed concern and focused on the development process of fast tracking a development plan and development agreements, there were no related recommendations. The mayor recommended that based on these concerns, a process for fast tracking and development agreements be created.

"The s e are the type of recommendations you would expect to receive in an audit that is meant to improve the city's operations," Kotyuk said. San Jacinto may seek help from the American Institute of Certified Planners to assist them with further development recommendations. "I am proud of San Jacinto's City staff that took the brunt of this unprofessional attack to be transparent with the public.

The credibility and integrity of these workers are proven by evidence within management's and outside legal counsel's response," Kotyuk said. "They deserve our community's gratitude for professionally managing the City's substantial growth during the boom, the prudence during the great recession, the questioning of their name, and their endurance to turn our community around."