We talk a lot about the official audit the firm KPMG is working on for the city. That, of course, has been delayed.
But there’s another audit in the works that’s getting a bit less attention: the annual financial report of the San Diego City Employees’ Retirement System, or SDCERS.
Last I heard that report – which details the investments, revenues, liabilities etc. of the retirement system – was supposed to be ready in July.
I think it’s August now but, as my colleagues will attest, I have problems with dates sometimes.
Mark Sullivan, a police officer and member of the SDCERS board of administration, said the board is waiting to hear from its auditor, the firm Brown Armstrong, Friday.
In April, voiceofsandiego.org reporter Evan McLaughlin wrote this after interviewing SDCERS Assistant Administrator Bob Wilson:
Wilson said the staff has been working to satisfy the auditors’ requests for communication over the past few months, and said he hopes that Brown Armstrong will have everything they need from SDCERS staff after this week.
“When I’ve legitimately gotten the ball back in their court, I will propose to them a timetable and then we’ll see if that happens,” Wilson said.
That was April. The ball is in their court, definitely, we just don’t know where their court is.
Sullivan told me today that he suspects Brown Armstrong is taking the approach of its counterpart at the city: KPMG. In other words, they want to wait until every document, every investigation, every word that can ever be said about the city’s pension crisis is said before they dare commit to publish anything.
“It appears to me that they wanted to wait for the Kroll report to come out from the city. I hope they don’t want to wait for KPMG,” Sullivan said.
Brown Armstrong has never really seemed like it enjoyed its San Diego pension gig. Last fall, in a bizarre move, the firm asked the SDCERS board to sign a statement saying the board was basically being truthful about the facts of the system. Brown Armstrong later backed away from that request.
But they’re certainly still in CYA mode.