NATCHEZ — A Madison-based accounting firm will be overseeing the operations of the Natchez City Clerk’s office in an effort to help get the office up to par.

At the request of Natchez Mayor Darryl Grennell, the Natchez Board of Aldermen recently voted to hire Madison-based Collins, Barr & Hembree to provide oversight and assistance to the office.

The firm would assist in the preparation of the budget for the 2017-18 fiscal year and also help resolve other issues in the clerk’s office.

The city hired Collins, Barr & Hembree in September 2016 to conduct a forensic audit of the city’s finances. Grennell said the firm is finalizing the audit report and should make a report on it to the board soon.

During the audit, Grennell said, the firm’s staff discovered the budget was not properly prepared, including using the correct template to publicly publish the budget prior to its adoption.

Former assistant city clerk Megan Edmonds was appointed as interim city clerk following the departure of former city clerk Melissa Hawk. As it will be Edmonds first time preparing the city’s budget, Grennell said he thought it would be a good idea for the firm to help.

“I just want to make sure it’s done correctly,” Grennell said Thursday.

The city will begin budget preparations early this year — in May — to get a head start on the budget, which must be adopted in September for the new fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1.

Last year, the aldermen struggled with balancing the budget, and budget talks came on the heels of the termination of former city clerk Wendy McClain.

For years, mostly under the direction for former elected City Clerk Donnie Holloway, the clerk’s office has been plagued by staff turnover and questions of proper financial accountability.

The problems and the quest for a solution led aldermen to change the city clerk’s position from an elected one to an appointed one.

The problems in the city clerk’s office were also the reason Grennell pledged even before he took office in July 2016 to have a forensic audit completed.

“I want (Collins, Barr & Hembree) to help us to get all the stuff straightened out in the clerk clerk’s office,” Grennell said. “I want the clerk’s office to be where it is supposed to be.”

The clerk’s office is currently without a permanent city clerk, and the aldermen elected to postpone filling the position until the firm could verify the clerk’s office was operating at a satisfactory level at the suggestion of Ward 1 Alderwoman Joyce Arceneaux-Mathis.

“I want to put the hiring of a city clerk on hold until we get them in here … and they have told us we’re clean and that department is ready to go with a clerk,” Arceneaux-Mathis said.

The fee for Collins, Barr & Hembree would be $150 per hour, Grennell said, with an estimated average cost of $4,500 a month.

“That would be my hesitance with it,” Ward 6 Alderman Dan Dillard said at the board meeting. “Again, we have to identify where these monies are going to come from. I’m certainly in agreement that we’re at a point now where we can’t afford not to do it. I would just like to have some idea of what type of charges we’re looking at.”

Arceneaux-Mathis said the city would be looking at approximately $54,000 per year, though Grennell said he did not expect the firm to be with the city a year.

“I think we need to make sure … yeah they probably will,” Arceneaux-Mathis said.

Arceneaux-Mathis pointed out that the city is not currently paying a salary for a city clerk.

“That’s why I amended the motion from the beginning so that we don’t hire anybody else … because I think we can sustain that amount within the budget that was allowed for that department, because it was budgeted for a city clerk and an assistant city clerk,” Arceneaux-Mathis said.

The board voted unanimously to allow Grennell permission to begin the process to hire the firm and asked that City Attorney Bob Latham review the contract before it is executed.