Missy CrutchfieldLast week, it was revealed that Sandy Coulter, a 32-year Chattanooga City employee who managed the Tivoli Theatre and Memorial Auditorium, resigned after an internal audit uncovered misappropriation of funds.
A memorandum from City Auditor Stan Sewell indicated that “approximately $12,000 in cash” used to pay advances for shows at the two venues sat in an envelope in an unlocked safe — in an unlocked office — “accessible to any staff retrieving office supplies.” Further, the petty cash account available to the Tivoli Theatre and Memorial Auditorium employees contained a staggering $10,000 balance — and no one properly balanced the books for the account.
Perhaps worst of all was the auditor’s finding that the venue’s employees wrote a number of checks to “cash.” That practice is especially concerning, since, as Sewell points out, “there is no way to actually track where the money is being spent or who received the money.”
Coulter apparently took advantage of the lax financial controls at the venues she managed, which led to her resignation. The resignations should not stop with Coulter.
Astonishingly, the October memorandum, was not the first time city auditors discovered problems with how money was managed and the books were balanced at the city-owned, taxpayer-funded performance halls. It was at least the fourth time since 2005 city auditors came to the Department of Education, Arts & Culture, which manages the venues, with many of the same exact problems, a review of audit documents revealed.