City Dumps Auditor of Scandal-Ridden Bell

Mission Viejo's financial documents will no longer be reviewed by the firm in charge of reviewing documents for Bell, the city in Los Angeles County  plagued by months of scandal, including the arrest of several of its officials.

In a unanimous vote, the City Council decided to choose a new auditor over Mayer Hoffman McCann. The Bell auditor will not be allowed into the next application pool for auditors.

Assistant City Manager Irwin Bornstein said the firm skipped over "red flags" that should have alerted them to Bell's mismanagement, including revenue shortfalls.

He also said the firm has "done good work" for Mission Viejo for 10 of the past 14 years, including the last two years. The city uses an auditor rotation policy once every eight years, and MHM is in its second year out of a possible eight.

The Monday decision followed brief discussion. Councilwoman Kathy Schlicht said she voted to drop MHM after finding an online article about the city of Victorville's dealings with the firm. Councilwoman Rhonda Reardon called the firm's auditing "sloppy."

You can watch video of the event (at about the 1:50 mark) and the meeting's full agenda here.