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Over a million dollars in refunds have been kept by Gainesville's insurance broker over the last 14 years, and city officials are trying to find out how this happened. Arthur J. Gallagher, broker for the city's insurance, works with the city staff to make sure the appropriate levels of coverage are provided to the city and has been doing that since 1991.

The problem was discovered last June when Gallagher gave the city a check for close to 1.3 million dollars, but Gainesville Mayor Pegeen Hanrahan says they weren't exactly sure what it was for so they didn't deposit it. They're not trying to find out what the check was for.

Hanrahan adds Gallagher has caused problems in other cities as well and right now they're looking into the issue. They've contacted the attorney general's office and the state attorney's office.

Another problem deals with the fact that this problem didn't come to the city commission's knowledge, BEFORE the commission voted to renew its contract with Gallagher for one year on July 11th. Hanrahan says a staff member says she made decision because her primary concern was getting the insurance placed prior to hurricane season. Hanrahan says even if that was the right call, it wasn't her call to make.

Hanrahan adds internal and external auditors are going over the matter with a "fine-toothed comb" to identify where the errors were so that it doesn't happen again.