A last-minute addendum to an upcoming specially called Martinsville City Council meeting could provide the public with details on the city’s forensic spending audit and Sands Anderson’s workplace investigation.
The addendum seeks to switch discussions at Thursday’s 5 p.m. meeting from closed to open session, as Martinsville councilors get a first look at the audit.
Councilmember Aaron Rawls said he wants to bring the council’s review of the audit out of closed session.
“Yesterday, Councilman [Julian] Mei and I submitted an agenda addendum,” Rawls wrote in an email Wednesday. “We will vote on canceling the closed session in favor of receiving the report in open session.”
An agenda addendum allows council members to suggest last-minute changes to a meeting agenda. The addendum submitted by Rawls and Mei includes a discussion on reviewing the audit in an open session instead of the previously planned closed session.
“I expect this to fail, but the community deserves the effort,” Rawls wrote. “I also think the resulting discussion will be insightful.”
Last month, Martinsville Mayor L.C. Jones informed the public that the city’s forensic audit, conducted by accounting firm Brown Edwards, was complete and ready for council review. Councilors hired Brown Edwards in July to conduct the audit. Council voted for the forensic audit at the same meeting they put then-City Manager Aretha Ferrell-Benavides on administrative leave.
Prior to initiating the audit and firing the city manager, city councilors faced public concerns about city spending, specifically spending relating to trips.
In May, Rawls filed a Virginia Freedom of Information Act request for details on city spending. This was weeks after he was removed from a council meeting by a sheriff’s deputy while expressing his concerns about city spending and the city manager’s proposed pay increase.
In a recent press conference, Rawls said he believes documents like the forensic audit and a workplace report conducted by the city’s legal representatives, Sands Anderson, will either dispel public concerns or give them a better idea of what is going on behind the scenes.
Rawls’ agenda addendum mentions the unredacted version of Sands Anderson’s report and offers the city council the chance to discuss it in an open session. In August, the city council voted 2-2, with Jones abstaining, to not release investigatory information, citing attorney-client privilege.
A FOIA request by Cardinal News resulted in the city turning over an almost completely redacted version of the report. Staff and officials confirmed that an unredacted version of the study exists and is currently only available to council members.