Despite the accidental posting of sensitive financial information that went unnoticed for several months, the city of Langley has seen no indication of fraudulent activity.

A document in an agenda packet for a meeting in April 2022 of the city’s citizen-led Finance and Personnel Commission contained the banking account number and information for the treasurer’s account, which is used for day-to-day transactions. At the time, the balance in the account was approximately $1.6 million, or about 13 to 14% of the city’s total funds, Langley Mayor Scott Chaplin said.

The mayor took full responsibility for the error, which was brought to his attention during a December city council meeting by an eagle-eyed member of the public.

Chaplin said the error came about because the council wanted the finance commission to work on bank reconciliations each month. He added that it was his mistake to allow the account documents to go in the packet without redacting the sensitive information.

The banking account that was exposed has since been frozen and, miraculously, no fraud has been recorded. Chaplin said it was quite fortuitous, since the incident prodded him to create new accounts that the city began using this month. And with a new finance director onboard, he’s hopeful that the city won’t have any more missteps.

Over the course of 2022, Chaplin began decreasing the amount of money in the treasurer’s account, from $1 million in August to $700,000 in October and November to $300,000 in December, which he said is enough to cover approximately one month of expenses for the city.

He added that the bulk of the city’s funds have been kept safely in the state’s local government investment pool, which was earning 2.5% last August and over 4% last month. These funds were never exposed to public view and could not be transferred to any other entity per state law.