Sparta Begins Search For New Auditor

Sparta Aldermen approved the search for a new municipal auditor Thursday night.

Mayor Jerry Lowery said the city’s current auditor decided to cut back on his workload. Lowery said he was not looking forward to searching for a new auditor.

“I’m not really happy about this but it’s something that we are gonna have to do and it’s gonna cost us a lot more money than it is right now,” Lowery said. “However, we need to start putting that out for it and what he is charging us is not what they are charging anymore.”

City Administrator Tonya Tindle said Buddy Dicus had been the city’s auditor since at least 1990. The city will now solicit a request for qualifications before hiring a new auditor.

“There’s a lot that goes on for municipal auditing,” Lowery said. “A lot of accounts and government regulations that they need to know about, so we are gonna get a qualifications list of those who are interested and let them bid out that process and then we will look and see what its going to cost us next year.”

Lowery said he had two reasons why the city is going to miss Dicus’ services.

“Buddy Dicus is awesome at what he does and he has been very good to the City of Sparta and he does a great job,” Lowery said. “That’s the first reason. The second reason is we’re going into the unknown of here’s someone that is going to audit us and we don’t know what it is going cost us right now but we know we are gonna have to have someone.”

Lowery said the city must have an auditor as the city must be audited at least once a year. Lowery said Dicus has dropped several other clients including the Upper Cumberland Regional Airport.

In other business, aldermen approved hiring recommendations for several positions. The positions included are a trades helper for the water department, a police officer, and an Electric Lineman.

The aldermen also approved adding Caleb Lowery to the Sparta Housing Authority Board.

Aldermen approved updating the city’s schedule of fees and building permits to the 2018 International Code Councils Building Valuation Data.