Since an independent audit revealed years of poor accounting and more than $300,000 unaccounted for, the Fort Thomas city council and administration have taken different steps to increase financial transparency. One key step in that process is a forensic audit — but the city has been waiting on it since February.
A forensic audit is an in-depth analysis of an entity’s finances. The city contracted Dean Dorton for $35,000, asking the firm to examine the last three to five years of Fort Thomas’ finances.
“For our case, we wanted a more detailed audit of the $322,000 that was written off in 2025 due to accounting errors on our books,” City Manager Matthew Kremer said.
Fort Thomas officials were set to hold a public meeting to discuss the audit’s findings on Monday, but because the audit isn’t yet complete they have since cancelled that meeting.
“I was surprised that it was taking this long,” Kremer said. “It was supposed to be a probably a four month process, and it's turned into a six month at this point.”
Kremer said the Dean Dorton, the company doing the forensic audit, is just perfecting their review.
“Everybody wants it to be complete and accurate, so that's what the delay is about,” he said.
How did the city get here?
In 2025, an independent audit revealed an unaccounted $332,000 in Fort Thomas’ 2023-2024 fiscal year books. The money was not lost, rather miscounted, so officials wrote it off as years of poor accounting. Despite no suspected fraudulent activity, elected officials and administration have been taking steps since then to start rebuilding trust with constituents.
“This council staff inherited the problems identified in this audit which have been going on for years,” Mayor Andy Ellison said in his State of the City address in January. “Our old auditor failed to disclose any of these problems.”
Last October, Kremer said the city would add a financial reporting window on the city’s website. The council’s finance committee also pledged to generate a monthly ledger.
Now, the city has monthly balance sheets, financial reports and yearly audits publicly available on the Finance Committee page of the city website.
“It's a good opportunity for [residents] to see what we're spending and ask questions on why we are,” Kremer told WVXU. “We do get monthly questions on that, which is good because you know there's nothing that we spend money on that we aren't able to explain.”
Shortly after the audit revealed the unaccounted funds, the city appointed Steve Bodde as Finance Director and Assistant City Administrator. He is no longer in either of those positions and the city does not have a permanent Finance Director.
Instead, the city has two finance clerks and a contracted certified public accountant firm. Kremer said the city is still testing out the new structure.
“We're currently going through the process of evaluating how it's gone for the last three to four months, and determining if we are going to stick with the [accounting] firm or if we're going to go back to having a full-time employee,” Kremer said.
Kremer said he is still expecting to receive the final forensic audit next week, and the city will reschedule the public meeting for a future date.
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