Pyle made the request for the audit in the form of a letter sent to each council member, Mayor Ron Gonzales and City Auditor Gerald Silva on Aug. 5.

"I just want to know who's responsible here. Is it the city? Is it the AYA? Both?" said Pyle. "I think that since the AYA has a very sparse setup, it's not going to take a whole lot of time to audit. Let's make the proper corrections. It's the least we should expect."

Pyle made the request after she visited the Almaden Resident's office to examine the 441 pages of documentation compiled during an 11-week investigation of the AYA's finances and the $594,000 of San Jose taxpayer money already invested in the project. The AYA's board of directors dodged questions about how much money the organization has and did not document how it has spent the public's money.

The Resident's story also described how the AYA, a private 501c(03) nonprofit organization, received $150,000 in two city grants, was awarded another $150,000 as a reimbursement grant and is expected to repay the city's contingency reserve an additional $100,000, without having signed contracts with the city. When that story was published on July 15, City Attorney Rick Doyle and Planning Director Stephen Haase said the documentation on the grants would now be put together for the AYA to sign.

According to Robin Klenke, an internal auditor for San Jose, any citizen can ask a council member to audit a project. "The city auditor is a council appointee and performs audit assignments at council members' direction and discretion," Klenke said. "Any citizen can contact the city council member representing their district to discuss an area of concern. A city council member may—or may not—then request the city auditor to perform an audit of the area.

"If the [AYA] is providing service to citizens and is the recipient of city funding to do so—grant monies, for example—[Silva] can audit if asked," said Klenke, explaining how a private agency like the AYA would be subject to examination.

But before the audit will be conducted, the council's rules committee must consider the request and decide whether it's needed, Klenke added. Dist. 10 City Councilwoman Pat Dando chairs that committee.

Klenke said that most audit requests from the council are geared toward identifying ways to save money.

Dist. 4 Councilman Chuck Reed said he plans to ask the city manager "for an explanation of the paper trail, or lack thereof, on the money so I know a bit more about the facts before I decide if I think we need an audit."

Other council members did not respond by press time.