Bell needs help, and no one will argue that. But it also seems that no one wants to come to their aid.

The city’s books are in such disarray that the new council and staff are having trouble creating a new fiscal roadmap for the town, because they can’t figure out the depth of their troubles. They sought outside, professional help, but of the 30 or so firms the city contacted, none responded.

Now the city is turning to the State Controller’s Office, hoping that they can help connect them with a municipal auditor who can thoroughly examine their books.

While the State Controller has already audited the books several times, their inquiries were searching for illegal activities and misappropriation of funds, not looking for accounting practices and solvency.

From the Los Angeles Times:

After receiving no response from dozens of accountancy firms, the city of Bell plans to turn to the state controller’s office for help finding someone to perform a thorough audit of its books.

The city asked at least 30 firms for proposals for a new auditing contract five months ago, but they either didn’t respond or declined, said Pedro Carrillo, Bell’s interim chief administrative officer.

“The resistance and hesitation we’ve gotten is that nobody wants to touch Bell,” Carrillo said, adding that most auditing firms do not want the scrutiny.

Read the full article here.