The City of Vero Beach has less than three weeks to complete its 2024-25 audit on time, and one month to prepare the coming year’s operational budget, but last week City Manager Monte Falls decided it was the right time to eliminate the comptroller position and terminate an experienced 13-year accounting employee.

Falls did so without the knowledge of at least one member of the city council. After Vero Beach 32963 found out about Comptroller Kathy Taube’s termination and asked Councilman Aaron Vos for an explanation, Vos replied, “Oh no. I did not hear anything about anyone being fired.”

Vos relayed questions to Falls, who later that afternoon sent out the following memo informing the City Council:

“After careful consideration, we decided to reorganize the Finance Department. Over the past year, it became clear that the responsibilities associated with the Comptroller position were no longer aligned with the direction we believe will best support the department’s future needs. As a result, the position was eliminated effective June 2, 2026. Ms. Taube received two weeks of severance pay and was asked to conclude her duties by the end of the day.”

Taube began her city career in 2013 with two and a half years in the finance department under Cindy Lawson, the award-winning finance director who served from 2011 to 2023. Taube advanced to be the risk management and benefits coordinator in human resources in 2015 but still worked closely with the finance staff.

Then, in 2025, the finance department fell behind in producing needed pension calculations for retiring employees. Finance Director Steve Dionne, who was forced out in February 2025, was unfamiliar with local municipal pension programs. His employees at the Palm Beach County Health Department where he worked previously were on the Florida Retirement System. Current Finance Director Lisa Burnham previously worked in Michigan, where pension systems are different than in Florida.

Taube knew how to do the pension calculations, and how to perform other important finance tasks, too, so she transferred back into the finance department to help out and was given the title of comptroller in June 2025.

Throughout 2025 and 2026, when Falls spoke at public meetings about the finance department and tasks assigned to it, his expressed focus was on getting the department fully staffed and not overburdening Burnham and her staff.

Taxpayers are even footing the bill for private accounting firm Rehmann to assist the finance staff. First hired in 2024, Rehmann provided accounting support services throughout 2025, and the city just signed another $192,000 contract with the company on April 28 for up to 700 hours of work.

In his April 21 memo to the council justifying the additional $192,000 accounting expense, Falls noted that there were still two open positions in the short-staffed finance department.

“While initial support from Rehmann was more targeted in nature, the level of need increased during the current audit cycle, which is the third audit cycle advanced within a compressed timeframe, due to sustained staffing vacancies and limited internal capacity within the Finance Department,” Falls wrote.

“Concurrently, the Finance Director was advancing the audit, maintaining daily operations, and leading ongoing stabilization efforts, while overseeing the Enterprise Resource Planning software ... at the same time, unanticipated retirements within the Information Technology Division required increased day-to-day involvement and leadership attention, including recruitment efforts. Collectively, these demands exceeded what could reasonably be absorbed within the existing staffing structure without additional support.”

All of which raises an obvious question: Why under these harried, understaffed circumstances would Falls suddenly terminate a top finance staff member?

Nowhere in the very recent memo does Falls say he is re-organizing the finance department, eliminating the comptroller position or laying anyone on the accounting staff off.

In 2025, the City of Vero Beach came under punitive action from the Florida Legislature’s Joint Legislative Audit Committee or JLAC for violating state law requiring cities to file annual audits and financial statements on time. The city’s fiscal year 2022-23 audit was completed nearly a year late. Then the 2023-24 audit was filed more than three months late. The 2024-25 audit is due on the State of Florida’s final day of its current fiscal year, June 30.

This newspaper has submitted a public records request for all documentation reflecting the “careful consideration” behind the city’s latest mystifying management decision to re-organize the finance department and terminate the comptroller.