Judge calls claim of auditing issues 'meritless'

A circuit court judge has found no issues with City Hall and found the claims made by a former senior internal auditor to be baseless.

The review was requested by the Sarasota City Commission after former employee Maryellen McGrath resigned in October and sent commissioners an e-mail that claimed the Auditor and Clerk’s Office was in disarray and she had to resign because of low employee moral and auditor issues within the department.

But in a report released Thursday, Judge Thomas Gallen said he found no issues with the department and described the remaining staff at City Hall as “proficient, professional, and dedicated.”

McGrath also claimed that current auditor Heather Riti Essa was spending too much time looking at other employee e-mails.

While Essa’s computer hard drive was taken recently as part of a computer forensic investigation at the request of City Manager Bob Bartolotta, Gallen called Essa “honest and straightforward.

Gallen also wrote that McGrath was never involved with a Newtown youth program audit that she criticized.

Gallen also said that McGrath's past auditing was for public companies and some of her auditing concerns were not relevant to municipal government operations.

McGrath would not meet with Gallen unless the city agreed to pay $400 to $500 per hour to compensate her and her attorney for the time.

For more information, pick up a copy of Thursday’s Dec. 15 Sarasota Observer.

Contact Kurt Schultheis at [email protected].