La Marque's interim finance director, Worth Ferguson, presented an extensive package of accounting and reconciliation documents at the Oct. 13 meeting and outlined a public-facing tracker and plan to post full detail to the city's transparency portal.

Why it matters: Council members and residents said they wanted the fullest possible accounting after a period of fiscal instability. Ferguson said the packet runs to roughly 1,250 pages and that staff will publish the documents and a reconciliation tracker that shows progress on month-by-month reconciliations, audit findings and next steps.

Finance committee and transparency tools
Council voted to establish an ad-hoc finance review committee to assist in reviewing financial documents and advising on transparency. The committee members listed by staff for appointment included: Finance Director Worth Ferguson; Interim City Manager Barbara Holly; EDC representatives James Osteen and Alex Getty (sometimes referenced as Guthrie/Getty in discussion); two proposed citizen members experienced in accounting and oversight (Harriet Massey and Pastor Jeremy Windham); and Councilmember Tanya Griffin as the council's representative. Staff said alternates could be added later.

Ferguson described a public tracker that will show reconciling tasks (cash/investments/accounts payable/receipts), the status of audit items and a prioritized list of forensic-review scopes the public or council might request. He said the goal is to publish monthly progress updates and a three-page executive summary to help nontechnical readers navigate the full reports.

Next steps
The council asked staff to post the packet and the reconciliation tracker on the city's financial-transparency web pages. The newly formed committee will begin work and the city manager will publish a schedule for committee meetings and public updates.