Mayor Cortez on city changes recommended by state audit

One of the findings in the state audit of the city of Joplin was there were too many emergency ordinances.

Joplin Mayor Keenan Cortez told Newstalk KZRG:

“Absolutely not an issue any longer. And actually, even before the state auditors got to town, there were members of the Joplin City Council bringing that issue up and saying, we have way too many of these. Let’s scale it back and city staff did. We have probably cut that by 80% now in 2025 versus what we were doing two years ago.”

The recent state audit of Joplin also found that “The city lacks an internal audit function.”

Mayor Cortez responded on the KZRG Morning Newswatch:

“Joplin is highly audited by lots of different entities. And we do have a position called a financial analyst that is part of her job duties is to help with some internal audit controls. And she does do that. But we are highly audited.”

Cortez went on to say: “We have financial controls in place in a lot of different places. And the thing I want people to understand about the state audit that has been completed is we got a chance to take what was already a strong program and make it even stronger.”