Staff asked the council to fill two audit seats. The council deleted the committee instead.
The January 14, 2025 packet told the council, in its suggested action, that "the Audit Committee also needs two more committee members from the council." The council read that line, heard the mayor and the administrator, and voted 5-0 to remove the committee instead.
A council packet is the staff's written advice to the council. It tells members what is on the agenda, what the facts are, and what staff suggests they do. On January 14, 2025 the Kenyon packet's advice on the audit committee was one sentence long, and the council did the reverse of it within three minutes of reaching the item.
The written advice
Page 128 of the packet lists the 2025 appointments and designations. Line 12 reads "Audit Committee – Scott Lehner, ___________, ___________." Under the heading "Suggested Action," administrative assistant Holli Gudknecht wrote: "There are still vacant spots on the Historic Preservation Commission and on the Park & Rec Committee. The Audit Committee also needs two more committee members from the council. MOTION NEEDED." The previous year's list, approved January 9, 2024, had carried Mayor Doug Henke, council member Molly Ryan, Finance Director Whitney Kyllo and Administrator Mark Vahlsing. Henke and Ryan had left the council in the November election, which is what created the two blanks.
The Audit Committee also needs two more committee members from the council.Suggested action, 2025 Appointments and Designations, January 14, 2025 packet, p. 128. Packet.
The spoken advice
When Mayor Don Kirchmann reached the line in the meeting, he did not ask for two names. He said "there is debate on whether or not we actually need this audit committee" and that "when talking with Scott earlier, he says that he has to report to us anyhow as city administrator, so is there something that we really need?" 30:18. City Administrator Scott Lehner then explained that "the reason I brought it up to the mayor" was that the finance director, the auditors and he himself would all be part of the audit process anyway, that anything they did would come back for final approval, and that "I could go either way" 30:44. The one option he described in detail was the council letting "your city administrator work the staff and contractors, get it done and bring it for final approval" 32:44.
Two council members said it would simplify things. One said "I'm fine with it being with just Scott." Kirchmann: "We're pretty approachable." He asked whether a motion was needed and was told no. that the committee would be eliminated (the captions read "all right then we'll eliminate the all the committee") 33:34. The minutes in the next packet record it inside the appointments vote: "Motion by Bailey seconded by Brunner to approve the 2025 committee appointments and designations, eliminating the audit committee. Motion carried 5-0-0."
There is debate on whether or not we actually need this audit committee.Mayor Don Kirchmann, Jan. 14, 2025, 30:25, from the city's caption track, source
Two pieces of advice, one vote
The council had before it a written recommendation to fill two seats and an oral suggestion, attributed to the administrator by the mayor and confirmed by the administrator, that the seats might not be needed. It took the oral one. Nothing in the packet, the minutes or the recording explains why the staff's written position changed between the day the packet was assembled and the night it was read, or who decided it should. The recording shows only that the person who "brought it up to the mayor" was the person whose name filled the committee's one occupied seat.
There is a difference between a committee with two vacancies and no committee. A vacancy can be filled at the next meeting by any council member willing to serve. A deleted body has to be recreated, and the council that deleted it has every incentive not to admit the error by doing so. Eighteen months later, on July 14, 2026, a council member appointed that spring asked for a breakdown of contracted-services costs and was told by Abdo's manager that the detail was not pulled up 1:23:01. That is the question an audit committee exists to have already asked. It had no members because it had no existence.
It simplifies the process a little bit. I'm all for that.A council member, Jan. 14, 2025, 32:01, source
The fix the packet already named
The Government Finance Officers Association recommends that every local government maintain an audit committee of governing-body members, that no one with management responsibility within the audit's scope sit on it, and that it meet the auditors privately. Minnesota Statute 412.111 lets the council create such a body by motion at any regular meeting. The January 2025 packet asked for two council members. The ask stands. The council can grant it any month it chooses, and the first thing the new committee would receive is the FY2025 audit's three material weaknesses, presented September 8, 2026 to a council with no committee to receive them.
Before and after
- Jan. 9, 2024Appointments list: audit committee of Doug Henke, Molly Ryan, Whitney Kyllo and Mark Vahlsing.
- Dec. 10, 2024Henke's and Ryan's last regular meeting; their two committee seats go vacant with them.
- Jan. 14, 2025Packet page 128: "Audit Committee, Scott Lehner" and two blanks, with the suggested action to add two council members.
- Jan. 14, 2025, 30:18The mayor asks whether the committee is needed, citing his earlier talk with Scott.
- Jan. 14, 2025, 33:34"All right then we'll eliminate"; the minutes record it inside the appointments motion, 5-0-0.
- July 14, 2026, 1:23:01Abdo's manager tells a council member she does not have the contracted-services detail pulled up.
- Sept. 8, 2026The FY2025 audit's three material weaknesses are presented to the full council.
What the statute says
The governing body of every state and local government should establish an audit committee or its equivalent
The packet's one-sentence advice matched the national standard.
The council may create departments and advisory boards and appoint officers, employees, and agents for the city as deemed necessary for the proper management and operation of city affairs.
The same power that removed the committee can restore it, by motion, at any regular meeting.
People in this story
- Holli GudknechtAdministrative assistant and deputy clerk; wrote the suggested action
- Don KirchmannMayor since January 2025; KMU commissioner
- Scott LehnerCity administrator, on the payroll since December 14, 2024
- Mary BaileyCouncil member and acting mayor
- Elana BrunnerCouncil member, sworn in January 14, 2025; resigned March 2026
- Doug HenkeMayor through December 2024; held one of the two seats that went vacant
Sources
- Packet, January 14, 2025, p. 128, 2025 Appointments and Designations.
- City of Kenyon recording, January 14, 2025, at 30:18 to 33:40.
- Minutes, in the February 11, 2025 packet.
- Appointments, January 9, 2024.
- City of Kenyon recording, July 14, 2026, 1:23:01.
- Government Finance Officers Association, Audit Committees; Minnesota Statute 412.111.
More from the record
Kirchmann, Bailey and Brunner abolished the audit committee on one man's say-so. That man was the one being audited.
Lehner evicted the taco truck for "perception." The owners found out from the newspaper.
Lehner called the KMU superintendent a records-hoarder to his face. Four minutes later he was apologizing.
All 27, in order · The open letter · Every packet and recording