Hidden Audit Presentation Records Released by New Rochelle

NEW ROCHELLE, NY (September 11, 2025) — On Tuesday, the New Rochelle City Council met for its monthly Committee of the Whole Meeting to hear the status on the much-delayed independent auditor’s report.

Finance Commissioner Ed Ritter and Brian Sawma, the so-called “independent” auditor from EFPR Group, spent over an hour engaged in efforts to deceive the city council, such as attempting to cover up a $4.5 million error (which explained a large chunk of the unexpected drop in the unassigned fund balance). Given this, there is no reason to believe anything said by Sawma and Lying Ed Ritter.

SEE: New Rochelle Fund Balance Q&A Devolves Into Unintelligible Mush

It was all but impossible for the public to follow the discussion at the council table.

New Rochelle routinely posts materials in advance on their site, as seen in their meeting archives (e.g., agendas often go up days before meetings). It is a “tell” that they want to hide or suppress information when they do not post such materials.

Not surprisingly then, none of the records discussed during the agenda item on the auditor’s report — including the EFPR presentation about the ongoing audit, and two handouts circulated by Ritter (2024 Fund Balance Usage in Fiscal Year 2024, 2024 Revenues and Expenses Report). As the biggest controversy in New Rochelle over the past week has been my reporting on the collapse of the fund balance in the still-not-completed 2024 audited financials, withholding his report on “2024 Fund Balance Usage in Fiscal Year 2024” is an obvious attempt by Lying Ed to hide the truth from the public.

While the meeting was in progress, I emailed the City Clerk asking for the three missing records. She sent them to me the following day. I now share them here with subscribers.