Impact Fee Audit Almost Complete

An external audit of the town's impact fee program is almost complete, Acting Town Manager William Hart told the Town Council last week.

"We've come to the end of the audit process," he said July 15. "We expect it will be in final draft stage this week if not in the next few days."

The audit will then be reviewed by the town's attorney, and the town will then decide what to do going forward to make sure it meets the statutory and ordinance requirements surrounding impact fees.

The council voted in March to suspend all impact fees until the audit could be completed. A judge ordered the audit in December, saying the town had been "at best, lackadaisical in their handling and documentation of impact fees" and that a full accounting of the program was "the only solution to the Town's widespread misfeasance."

Hart said the town is also looking at what software it should use to track impact fees and what personnel mechanisms need to be put in place to assure compliance.

"Luckily out of this crisis comes the opportunity to manage these things," he said.

Part of the problem, Hart said, is that the impact fees were handled by three different departments in the past. In the future, he said it might be best to have one centralized authority.

He said it's too early to say who that person would be, but he said it probably won't wind up being the finance director or town manager. 

"In the future, what I see possibly is a planning person whose entirety of their job is devoted to these aspects of town planning," Hart said. 

He said the impact fee audit will be discussed further at the council's next meeting on Aug. 19.

"The staff has done an outstanding job of addressing these issues we've had," Hart said. "Our risk is significantly lower than it was last year, but risk always exists. Through a series of audits and reviews, we've gone through a period of discovery and also a period of cleanup, and I would say a period of process improvements. It appears that we're getting good, strong, competent legal advice and good, strong internal management to get us through this and come out the other side."