NORFOLK, Va. (WVEC) -- City Auditor John Sanderlin is looking at practices at Norfolk City Hall following the indictment of Anthony Burfoot.
Burfoot, the city treasurer, is accused of taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in kickbacks and bribes from a developer while he served on city council. In exchange, federal prosecutors said Burfoot used his influence as a councilman to benefit the now-defunct Tivest Development and Construction, LLC.
Councilman and mayoral candidate Andy Protogyrou requested the review by Sanderlin.
"I went through the indictment that was furnished in Anthony's case, paragraph by paragraph, went through with questions that legitimately need to be examined with regard to our council's procedures and, also, the culture that was in City Hall and NRHA (Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority)," said Protogyrou.
He found 17 paragraphs that raised questions in his mind which Sanderlin will use as a starting point in the review.
"When you look at the processes that were in place at the end of 2005 to 2011, those processes just didn't seem to work, and there was no check and no balance in the process, and that was really where we need to get and find those solutions," explained Protogyrou. "A good example is why would you sell a piece of property valued in millions for ten dollars or nominal amount? Who comes up with that? What was the give and the take in the acceptance and the offer in that?"
Protogyrou told 13News Now his questions may lead Sanderlin to find other issues in city practices. There is no timeline for the audit. Once it is complete, Sanderlin will present his findings to council members so they can discuss them.
He stressed that the purpose of the audit is to address procedural issues, not to comment on the validity of the accusations made against Burfoot.
"There are juries that do their job, and that will happen. There's a find lawyer involved that will find truth in this case through cross-examination, but in the end, if we accept this just as true to figure out what we're doing, then we can fix our policies and procedures as they are now," Protogyrou said.