AN ACT AUTHORIZING THE CITY OF PITTSFIELD TO AWARD A 1-YEAR OR MULTIPLE-YEAR CONTRACT FOR AN AUDIT OF THE BOOKS AND ACCOUNTS OF THE CITY
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
SECTION 1. Article 7 of the charter of the city of Pittsfield, which is on file in the office of the archivist of the commonwealth pursuant to section 12 of chapter 43B of the General Laws is hereby amended by striking out section 7-6 and inserting in place thereof the following section:-
SECTION 7-6: INDEPENDENT AUDIT.
The city council shall annually provide for an outside audit of the books and accounts of the city to be conducted by a certified public accountant or by a firm of certified public accountants and such person or firm shall have no personal interest, direct or indirect, in the fiscal affairs of the city or any of its officers. The mayor shall annually provide to the city council a sum of money sufficient to satisfy the estimated cost of conducting the audit as presented to the mayor, in writing, by the city council. The city council may award a 1-year or a multiple-year contract for the audit on or before September 15 of the first year of the contract year. Reports of annual audits shall be filed in final form with the city council not later than March 1 in the year following the year that is subject to the audit. Not less than every 5 years, the city council shall conduct a competitive procurement process to retain these auditing services.
SECTION 2. All contracts for audit services entered into or executed by the city before the effective date of this act are hereby ratified, validated and confirmed as though this act was in effect at the time such contracts were entered into or executed.
Approved, December 14, 2023.