Looking ahead: Open Meetings Act violation and unspecified budget changes

Treasurer asks for power to transfer appropriations between departments as fiscal year draws to close at upcoming Hyattsville city council meeting

Hyattsville city council plans to acknowledge an Open Meetings Act violation finding and consider a motion to grant the city treasurer the authority to make unspecified interdepartmental fund transfers to the fiscal year 2024 general fund budget at its May 6, 2024 city council meeting. The agenda also includes five proposed expenditures totaling $650,000, nine proclamations, two committee appointments, and the second reading and adoption of the new procurement ordinance.

The FY 2024 budget motion is included in the consent agenda, which customarily receives a single group vote and no discussion, and was submitted by Ronald Brooks, Hyattsville city treasurer, requesting authorization “to amend the FY24 General Fund Budget by adjusting and transferring available budget appropriations in various line-items and between departments to address year-end operation expenditures” before the end of fiscal year 2024. The one-page agenda item report states that the total amount of expenditures will not "exceed the previously approved…expenditures of $30.27 million," but it does not specify the amount of transfers the treasurer expects to make, nor does it outline the departments between which he plans to transfer funds. The city charter says “any transfer of funds between major appropriations for different purposes shall be approved by the Council before becoming effective.” 

The recently re-issued FY 2021 audit revealed the city exceeded final budget amounts in two general fund categories, recreation and community development as well as the capital projects budget. Hyattsville has not yet completed the FY 2022 or FY 2023 audits, which are overdue, but a comparison between the original budgets available on the city’s website and the FY 2025 budget book shows that the city exceeded its original FY 2023 police budget by $490,704 and its original FY 2023 general government budget by $189,810, as well as exceeding the original FY 2022 debt service transfer and FY 2023 community development budgets by less than $15,000 apiece. The original budget ordinances would not show any potential council-approved adjustments that happened during the fiscal year.

Since at least FY 2017, Hyattsville’s auditors have reported a material weakness in internal control, which is a significant problem in how the city handles its financial operations. The auditors have noted that the city does not complete “certain documented procedures…in a timely manner” and that its “ability to provide reliable interim financial reports is inhibited by current accounting practices.” The FY 2025 budget book relies on unaudited numbers for FY 2022 and FY 2023, the very numbers that the city’s auditors have said have “a reasonable possibility” of having significant errors.

Approximately one year ago, the city council also approved $200,000 in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds for a “treasurer summer emergency flex fund.” The allocation was not in the original agenda, but was added as an amendment proposed by Councilmember Sam Denes (Ward 1). City communications manager Cindy Zork said in an email that the funds were approved “as a preventative measure in case any urgent expenses that were eligible for ARPA arose during the summer of 2023, when the Council meets less frequently.” Zork also said that no such emergency spending was needed, and “the funds were returned for reprogramming” at the end of the summer.

The agenda also has an item titled “Open Meetings Act Compliance Statement,” with no accompanying materials in the agenda packet. Late last month, the state Open Meetings Compliance Board said that the Hyattsville City Council had violated the Open Meetings Act, by exchanging Zoom chat messages “related to the very business that the Council was considering at the meetings” that were not visible to public attendees at three city council meetings in 2024. After the Open Meetings Compliance Board finds a violation, a member of city council, or the mayor, “shall announce the violation and orally summarize the opinion” at the next city council meeting and a majority of council members must “sign a copy of the opinion and return the signed copy to the Board.”

The council is also considering the following expenditure approvals: