The City of Marion has missed a key deadline tied to its water and sewer funding, and Mayor Dexter Hinton says he has asked the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) for more time while auditors continue working on the city’s 2023 financial report. Councilmembers learned of the missed deadline at their first meeting of the New Year on Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2026.
ADEM told city officials on Nov. 19 of last year that Marion needed to submit audits for 2022 and 2023, along with related water system documentation, by Dec. 22 as part of an agreement linked to funding for water and sewer rehabilitation.
The 2022 audit was completed in May 2024 and has been obtained by this newspaper. No 2023 audit has yet been produced, and neither ADEM nor the city has provided any written confirmation that the 2023 report was filed by the December deadline.
Since early December, the Times-Standard-Herald has made multiple requests to ADEM and to the City of Marion for records showing whether the 2023 audit was submitted and whether any extension was requested or granted. Those requests have gone unanswered.
At a recent city council meeting, Hinton told councilmembers that the city had asked ADEM to push back the deadline and said he was now working toward a later date he described as “the 20th.”
“We also, too, with our audits, we extended it,” Hinton told the council.
“We submitted a request to ADEM to extend it to this month. They had no problem with submitting the documentation so we’re waiting until the 20th. So the auditor needed some time and also the office needed some to get some more documents.”
Councilman Stanley Kennie asked when the 2023 audit work actually began.
“Could you tell me exactly, or close to around the time that the 2023 audit started, y’all started working on it?” Kennie asked.
“It was somewhere in ’24,” Hinton replied. “Actually at the end of ’24—I think the beginning of last year was when we received our ’23 audit. It was like April.”
Kennie then asked when the city started preparing to send the audit to ADEM.
“When did y’all start preparing it?” he said.
“We’ve been preparing all year long,” Hinton said. “It’s been—we’ve been sending information about a year.”
Hinton went on to describe the city’s bookkeeping system as a barrier to getting information to the auditors.
“The thing is is there’s requirements in there, we’ve got to update our system so everything has been consolidated in a…kind of old-style tactics,” he told the council.
“We need to update our software so it can be processed in a more feasible manner but it’s still kind of doing it—based on our system we can’t—the only way can do is pull documents and a lot of our documents in the system—it’s kind of overpiled and you’ve got to pull the information and — you know I’m not doing all the work, I’m just looking at how it’s done. That’s why I’m talking spotty.”
Kennie reminded Hinton that, in an earlier meeting, the mayor had all but guaranteed the audit would be on time.
“Last month, or month before last, you almost guaranteed that it was going to be in…and nobody let us know that it was going to be late—you’re just now telling us,” Kennie said.
“The auditor requested additional time,” Hinton said.
“The auditor requested additional time?” Kennie asked.
“The auditor requested additional time and we submitted a letter supporting,” Hinton said.
“You mean you finished it, and the auditor—” Kennie began.
“I’m telling you,” Hinton said, “Based on the information that was provided and the time frame they needed a little more time for preparation.”
Councilmember Ann LeCroy asked whether the city’s audit bills were paid.
“Those are paid for? All the audits are paid, they’re up to date?” LeCroy asked.
“Yes, it’s been paid for,” Hinton replied. “We’re doing it on a reimbursement purposes. Again let me say this…this is why we’ve got to go to those [municipal official training] meetings. It’s my job to make sure that the audits are done. I take full responsibility for that.”
Hinton told the council that many cities never get their audits done because of the cost, saying an audit can run “$30–35,000” and that some municipalities go “years and years” without completing one.
“But again, we’re trying to overcome adversity and trying to make sure our finances are in line…but for me to tell you it’s a perfect world I would be lying to you,” he said.
Kennie pressed Hinton on whether any money was still owed for the 2023 audit.
“Is there any balance that you need to pay for the audit?” Kennie asked.
“No sir. It’s paid,” Hinton said. “That’s ’23. Its ’23, ’24 is rolling over. It has a balance. They’re already working on ’24.”
“Now, who’s working on it?” Kennie asked.
“Banks, Finley and White,” Hinton said, naming the firm that has prepared Marion’s other recent audits.
“I thought Mr. White told me we owed him $15,000,” Kennie said.
“That’s for a roll over,” Hinton replied. “It was [$35,000] to finish the ’23. Fifteen and 35 is $50,000. That’s our balance. We don’t hold anything for the ’23 audit.”
LeCroy asked whether that money came from funds ADEM made available to help the city catch up its audits.
“That’s from the $170,000 that ADEM gave us?” she said.
“Yes ma’am,” Hinton said. “That doesn’t include the [$15,000]. So we’ve expended all that money and it’s gone to Banks Finley and White.”
LeCroy then asked where Mason & Gardner, the Demopolis accounting firm the city previously hired, fit into the picture.
“Where did Mason & Gardner come in?” she asked. “Did they help?”
“They’re just the CPA, that’s why it’s taking us a little time because we had contracted with them to consolidate our financial,” Hinton said.
“That’s why it’s taking a little extra time because they dropped us last year. At the end of ’24 they dropped us. They just said it was just too inconvenient because we had—people kept calling.”
He asked the council to move on from discussion of Mason & Gardner’s involvement in the audits, dismissing it as “not city business.”
Hinton did not elaborate that night on who had been calling Mason & Gardner or what specific concerns were raised with the firm. This newspaper has requested comment from Mason & Gardner regarding the mayor’s statements. The firm had not responded as of press time.
The city’s 2022 audit, completed May 10, 2024, showed Marion ended the 2022 fiscal year with a deeply negative General Fund balance, more than $1.2 million in previously unrecorded accounts payable and debt, and a water utility whose positive net position is one of the only major assets on the city’s books.
The audit carried a qualified opinion and cited inadequate accounting records, unverified water, sewer and garbage receivables, and the city’s failure to keep a basic accounts payable ledger.
Under Alabama’s Open Records law, the Times-Standard-Herald has requested copies of any correspondence between ADEM and the City of Marion regarding the 2023 audit, the Dec. 22 deadline, and any extension requests.
