The Hutto City Council will consider the city’s first internal controls policy at its next meeting on May 18. City Finance Director Michel Sorrell outlined what the proposed policy will include, with goals of tightening best practices in the finance department and becoming more transparent to the City Council and Hutto residents. “[It is] one thing to find that we had a mess,” City Manager Odis Jones said. “Reconciling the books—we spoke earlier about issues with the IRS—you put measures in place to ensure you never get there again.” Sorrell said monthly financials will be provided to council members and will be made available on the city’s website. Transactions will also be properly authorized, and proper access will be permitted with authorization, he said. “It ensures the person responsible for reconciling the checkbook isn’t the one writing the checks,” Jones said. “There is always this check and balance happening throughout. As a team, when you’re managing a budget as complicated as we have now, you’ve got to have these things in place. That’s part of why we had the trouble that we did.” City Attorney Mike Shaunessy pointed out the proper controls have not been in place in Hutto. Sorrell will present City Council a draft of an internal controls policy for consideration at the next meeting.