County pools swimming in cash, and that’s a bad thing auditor says

The Spokane County Parks Department’s fiscal controls over two of its pools were so lax last year that the cash registers were overflowing with cash and sometimes left unattended, a state auditor’s report said.

Parks staff didn’t keep good track of swimming passes, didn’t calculate sales tax correctly or submit it on time, didn’t properly track inventory at its concessions and had other problems at its lakes and golf courses, a report released this week by State Auditor Brian Sonntag said.

“The cash registers at the North- and Southside pools were not cleared of excess cash during the day,” the report says, noting that they sometimes had more than $1,000, mostly in small bills. “Money fell out of the registers because they were so full.”