STOMACHING THE TRUTH

Too Much To Swallow

Dwelling, for a moment (or maybe two), on the $300K adjustment recently made to the city's books. More questions arise. The downward revision in revenue was not for this fiscal year (’08-’09)—but for the PRIOR one (’07-’08). And, all but $34,000 was a reduction in Sewer and Solid Waste Fund revenues. You know...the same funds that have been being subsidized with our General Fund tax monies FOR YEARS, allegedly without a single soul knowing about it. You know...the funds that IRB taxpayers will be struggling for years to repay. You know...the funds that involve loans that--even as of the reading of this blog posting--have yet to be authorized by our elected officials.

You can bet that if the general public is asking questions about this latest surprise adjustment, the State may have a few questions of their own. Like why an adjustment was made so far after the prior year's books were closed out? Or, was the actual adjustment made more than a half year BEFORE the commission voted to authorize it? If so, who authorized the adjustment when it actually occurred? Has the pen of Caspar the Ghost stuck again? And why did it take the commission nearly seven months to approve an adjustment revealed in April? Will the city auditors be forced to add a footnote on this year’s financials to explain this budget amendment because of its usual nature?

The commission approved this adjustment on November 13th by a 4-1 vote (Kennedy-NO). Under citizen comment on the subject, one resident asked how the need for this "correction" in revenue was discovered and who unearthed it. Guess who? Governmental accounting consultant Rob Garner found it—BACK IN APRIL! Odd. That's one item none of us remember him mentioning in all his resident-funded trips to from Tallahassee to IRB to attend commission meetings. Wasn't that a bit more important than telling us who served on the commission at the time each related enterprise fund activity occurred?

It almost feels like we’ve been paying Garner to spoonfeed us "this stuff,” because the entire scenario all at the same time is way too much to swallow. Feels a lot like too much turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy and pumpkin pie (with double whipped cream!) on Thanksgiving. On Thursday, you can take some Pepcid, Tums and Rolaids...belch and feel better. No antacid on earth is strong enough to relieve the pain of a million dollars in loans stuck in the throats.

Nancy Obarski

Beach Trail/IRB