Syracuse City Auditor Marty Masterpole says it's not out of the ordinary for councilors to make a request for an audit.

In December he received one from Councilor Susan Boyle.

“In this case Councilor Boyle came to me and said I think we need to look at the parks facilities and how they're rented and where the money goes,” said Masterpole.

Her concern was prompted by an email.

“She received an email from a constituent who was a head of a nonprofit group that had rented a city park facility and was concerned because a cash payment was requested,” he said.

Masterpole said the initial group paid by check, and that it turned out to be nothing. But, he did notice other red flags in the books.

“There was a lacrosse league that had multiple teams in it that rented the facility," he said. "They rented that facility and they paid by cash and no deposit slip matched up with the cash that had been paid." I really didn't know where the money was or what the charge could be but i knew specifically that money was accepted by a parks employee, in this case the commissioner it was accepted by the parks commissioner, and it never was deposited into the general fund as it was supposed to be."

Masterpole says he alerted the Mayor, and they agreed to take it up with the DA's Office.

On Tuesday Lazarus Sims was charged with 3rd-degree grand larceny.

“The good news is I think the checks and balances worked. I think everybody involved did their jobs that the checks and balances worked. A constituent brought it to the councilor the councilor brought it up to my attention my office did our financial investigation and realized there could be some criminal activity and brought it to the DA's office and the Mayor appropriately handled it as a personnel matter,” Masterpole said.

Sims has been accused of taking $5,400 worth of property from the City's Department of Parks & Rec.