Woonsocket Has Paid About $865,000 to Outside Firms While Two City Audits Stay Overdue
Woonsocket officials said the city has paid roughly $865,000 to two outside firms over 18 months — including about $453,935 for the FY23 audit alone — while the FY24 and FY25 audits remain unfinished.
Woonsocket taxpayers have covered close to $900,000 in outside <a href="https://bitcomme.com/5-best-accounting-software-for-e-commerce/” title=”5 Best Accounting Software for E-commerce”>accounting and audit fees over 18 months while two city audits remain overdue, and officials say sewer bills are also going up after 12 years without an increase.
Woonsocket has paid roughly $865,000 to two outside accounting and auditing firms over an 18-month stretch while the city’s fiscal 2024 and fiscal 2025 audits remain unfinished, city officials said at a special City Council meeting Monday.
The figures came out during a discussion of the overdue audits, according to the Woonsocket City Council’s published meeting recording. Councilor James C. Cournoyer put the total at $865,000 — $553,000 to CBIZ, the city’s audit firm, and $310,000 to CLA, an accounting firm hired to supplement city staff — and said that with outstanding bills included the number is “close to $900,000 over 18 months.”
“We got an FY23 audit. I’m not sure what else we got, to be very honest with you,” Cournoyer said. He added that he had no issue with the quality of either firm’s work, and that the problem was internal management: “We need to manage this better internally.”
The FY23 audit alone: about $453,935
Council President Daniel M. Gendron walked through a breakdown prepared for the meeting by Finance Director Chamberland. Excluding two line items, he said, the CBIZ charges tied to the fiscal 2023 audit add up to $453,935 — “almost a half million dollars for an audit back in 2023.”
Gendron said the council’s original authorizations for CLA were far smaller. In August 2024 the council approved a $35,000 expenditure, capped by amendment at $35,000. In March 2025, he said, the council was told about $25,000 of that had been spent and approved another $35,000 to finish work on the fiscal 2023 and 2024 audits — a total authorization of $70,000.
Spending with CLA has since reached $264,300, Gendron said, describing himself as shocked. “I was shocked when I realized we had exceeded the $70,000,” he said. “CLA is crushing us.” Cournoyer’s higher CLA figure of $310,000 includes bills not yet paid.
Billing rates questioned
The mayor said the city is disputing part of what it was charged, drawing a distinction between the work and the invoices. “I’m not criticizing the performance. I’m criticizing the amount of billing that was done for the work they did,” the mayor said, adding that the city expected certain tasks to be handled by lower-billing staff.
According to the mayor, the city was billed at the top hourly rate of a CBIZ representative identified as Wilkinson when junior staff were not available to do the work — “not talking about a day or two of not being able to work, but weeks and months of doing it at the highest rate.” The mayor said the city believes it will receive credits against future bills and intends to seek them. That is the city’s position, described at the meeting; no agreement on credits was presented.
Gendron cautioned that the council itself is not in a position to judge the firms’ work. “We can’t comment on their performance because we’re not in City Hall like you are,” he said. “What I am concerned with is the money that we’re expending.”
Caps now in place through FY27
The city solicitor said the council has already moved to limit future exposure. On August 18, 2025, the council passed two resolutions: one awarding CBIZ a three-year contract following a request for proposals, with flat fees of $160,000 for fiscal 2025, $165,000 for fiscal 2026 and $170,000 for fiscal 2027; and a second, separate flat-fee contract for the fiscal 2024 audit in a range of $155,000 to $175,000.
“For those ’24, ’25, ’26, and ’27, we’ve done what we’re supposed to do, which is cap the fees,” the solicitor said. “So, we don’t have this repeat of ’23.”
Chamberland said about $100,000 has already been billed on the fiscal 2024 report, leaving roughly $60,000 under that contract.
Where the audits actually stand
Cournoyer sought to pin down the timeline against what he called inflated claims circulating publicly. The fiscal 2024 audit was due on or before December 31, 2024, making it about 18 months overdue, he said. The fiscal 2025 audit is nearly eight months overdue. “They’re past due, don’t get me wrong, but they’re not three years and five years and some of the other stuff I’ve heard.”
Chamberland said she was not comfortable with some numbers on the trial balance — the summary of account balances auditors work from — and is conducting a deeper review. She said CLA had been working in an offline database and that it was not clear to her what entries had been made. “Good data in, good data out; bad data in, bad data out,” she said, adding she told the Office of the Auditor General she believed she could finish in two weeks and is now in her second week.
Gendron drew a line under what that means: “We are not saying that the audit will be done in two weeks. We’re saying that the internal accounting that is required for the audit will be completed in two weeks.” Chamberland said state auditors “keep expecting it sooner.”
Asked directly by Cournoyer whether the situation is recoverable, Chamberland said the constraint is time, not capability. “I think I’m capable of doing it,” she said.
A different order of priorities
Cournoyer urged the finance director to put the overdue audit third. His first priority would be getting sewer bills out, which he framed as a cash issue; second, cleaning up fiscal 2026 books, where he said he is concerned the city may be facing a “potentially meaningful” deficit that would carry into fiscal 2027. He stressed that more work is needed before that can be confirmed.
“If it becomes 19 months, it’s not going to change the world,” he said of the fiscal 2024 audit. “Getting the audit done for FY24 is going to make everybody happy, but it’s not going to change how much cash we have in our bank account.”
He also warned that sewer bills are rising, saying there has been no increase in more than 12 years. The mayor agreed sewer bills should come first.
Staffing is the stated fix
Both Gendron and the mayor tied the outside spending to unfilled jobs in the Finance Department. Gendron said positions the council authorized in March remain open. The mayor said an assistant controller role has been filled and that a request for proposals for a deputy controller position went out the day of the meeting.
“This doesn’t work if we can’t fill the positions,” Gendron said. “I think that everyone realizes now that CLA is not the answer, and I truly thought it was going to be the help that you needed. It’s not.”
Cournoyer cautioned that new hires will not produce immediate relief. “You could get them all filled tomorrow, and you’re not going to get a return on it for at least six months,” he said, noting existing staff must train them.
Councilor Valerie Gonzalez questioned the value received. She said that if the finance director is dissatisfied with the trial balances delivered, “we’re paying for work that you need to do in the end.” Chamberland said fiscal 2023 went better because city staff produced the trial balances internally and CLA assisted with schedules afterward; this time, she said, CLA did bank reconciliations and trial balances and made entries “without really knowing where things should be posted.” She said the city expects to handle trial balances in-house going forward.
Cournoyer also pressed on grant administration, arguing that grants create front-loaded general fund spending, heavy paperwork and additional audits. He said there have been cases where the city paid staff out of the general fund but could not bill the cost back because the underlying grant work was not performed; Chamberland confirmed that had happened. Gonzalez pushed back on any blanket retreat, saying “not all grants are created equal” and that grants should be judged individually.
The mayor said the city is discussing reimbursement of some audit costs with the school side, and said figures would be confirmed within days.
What’s next
Chamberland said the next scheduled call with the Office of the Auditor General was Tuesday afternoon. The fiscal 2026 audit is due on or before December 31, 2026. The council took no votes on the audits; the meeting adjourned at 7:57 p.m. by voice vote. Residents can follow the matter through the council’s regular meetings and the city’s posted finance reports.
This story was sourced from the complete transcript of the meeting. While we make every effort to ensure accuracy, the possibility of transcription errors could lead to inaccuracies.
Support Independent Journalism
Uprise RI provides free, independent coverage of the issues that matter to Rhode Islanders. Reporting like this takes time — your support keeps it free for everyone.
