The county’s Department of Recreation paid more than $5.8 million in invoices without adequate documentation, a new audit conducted by the county’s Office of the Inspector General found. The department also went more than two decades without a finalized criminal background check policy.
State law has required those checks for workers at recreation programs serving children since 1986. The county’s Inspector General warned the department about the missing policy in 2022.
Inspector General Megan Davey Limarzi’s office released the audit results Wednesday. It reviewed department activity from July 2022 through April 2026. Auditors flagged problems with invoices, cash handling, contract oversight, purchasing cards and travel.
Unsupported payments went to one contractor
The county paid the company $8.8 million to run youth programs in science, technology, engineering, art and math. The report does not identify the contractor.
Auditors found eight invoices worth about $5.6 million with little backup. They lacked itemized totals, descriptions of services and dates of service. Six more invoices had math errors. In one case, the county appears to have paid $1,149.87 too much.
The employee handling the invoices told auditors they process up to 50 each day and may have made errors.
Background check policy sat in draft since 2004
The department’s background check policy stayed in draft form until this month. A 2022 inspector general review first flagged the problem. Earlier this year, the Office of the County Attorney sent a draft back and recommended starting from scratch. The department blamed staff vacancies for the delay.
According to the county’s written response, the recreation director and the county attorney approved a final policy this month. The department also plans an 18-month review of about 25,000 fingerprint monitoring records. It expects to meet all of the 2022 recommendations by July 2028.
Flags for cash handling, contracts and spending
Auditors visited nine recreation facilities. At one, they found the safe room door unlocked, unattended and open to patrons. At three facilities, staff sometimes counted cash outside camera view.
Auditors also reviewed 174 daily cash balance reports from one week in June 2025. Staff failed to complete 121 of them on the required daily schedule, according to the report.
The department holds 534 instructor contracts worth about $79 million for classes such as yoga, cooking and pottery. Auditors found no monitoring at all for 20 of the 50 contracts they reviewed. Auditors found staff documented problems like instructor no-shows and parent complaints, but shared the feedback with instructors only once. Just two employees manage all the contracts.
Staff split six purchases into smaller charges to get around the $9,999 purchasing card limit. In one case, the department paid a portable toilet company in two installments using the same invoice both times. Staff also charged a hotel stay of more than $40,000 for 25 employees at a conference without the required approval.
Chief Administrative Officer Rich Madaleno agreed with all of the inspector general’s recommendations. In a written response, he said most of the invoice problems came from early in the audit period. The department plans to update its policies and train staff, with most fixes due by mid-2027.
Read the full report here.
