Seaside City Council considers a deeper audit into their own expenses.

At the top of a proposed contract that accounting firm Clifton Larson Allen LLP sent to the city of Seaside Oct. 2, it reads: “confidential.”

When Seaside City Manager Craig Malin authorized the first phase of the contract Oct. 4, he drew a blue line through that word.

“Every dollar we spend, people should get to know what it got spent on,” Malin says.

The contract calls for a forensic audit of city councilmember expenses from July 1, 2015 to the present, which City Council authorized in part Sept. 20. Approving the second phase of the audit will be considered by council on Oct. 18 because the estimated cost, $25,000, exceeds the threshold Malin can authorize himself. Along with the contract, City Attorney Don Freeman recommends they consider freezing all council member expenses for now.

The audit stems from Public Records Act request made this summer by a political research firm that asked for the expenses of councilmembers Kayla Jones – who is campaigning for mayor – and Jason Campbell, who is seeking re-election. The findings of that request, which were shared with local media outlets, caused Jones to come under fire when it showed she had thousands of dollars in child care expenses (which are in compliance with existing policy), and thousands more on travel. Some of her trips, like attending out-of-state conferences without city council approval, are known to be out of compliance with policy. (Both Malin and Jones said they were unaware of that policy at the time.)

The first phase of the audit, estimated to take 80 hours of work and cost the city $15,000, is currently being conducted, and is looking at which expenses were not compliant with city policy or “appear unusual or questionable in nature.”

The second phase of the audit would look at those expenses and figure out what went wrong.

The hope, Freeman says, is the audit will produce recommendations for what the city can do better. Malin says the findings of the audit will be published on the city’s website.