Forensic Audit of City Budget Needed
The city’s questionable financial situation requires a closer look by forensic experts.
The city’s bloated budget is unsustainable, despite what we are repeatedly told by the mayor and his CFO, Eric Demas.
Recent events have proven the city is technically broke, despite a huge tax roll, and added payments in lieu of taxes from Wynn Resorts that total over $30 million.
The mayor’s recent assertion that “these are difficult times” gives a new insight into the financial trials and tribulations of our city, which should be rich in cash – instead we are nearly broke and borrowing millions to sustain the city’s credit rating.
How such a situation can be allowed to exist is understandable in a city where the same mayor has ruled for longer than a decade.
The mayor has called all the shots and continues to call all the shots when it comes
to spending the city’s money.
We believe the excesses in his private life are causing him to pollute his stream of thought when it comes to how the city should run its money.
After so much time in the mayor’s office, he considers the city’s money his money and he will do with it as he pleases.
The situation as it now stands cannot be allowed to perpetuate itself any longer.
We would expect as a matter of common sense, the city council would protect itself by asking for a detailed accounting from the mayor.
More importantly, when times are tough, the mayor should announce a round of layoffs – not before Christmas – but rather, after the holidays.
The school department’s needs are not putting the city under.
It is rampant unchecked spending and hiring for new positions and the expansion of the city budget to a point where it is sputtering in order to be maintained that is beginning to cause financial instability.
The mayor and his CFO must be made responsible for their policies.
The city cannot continue to spend millions more than it takes in.
Doing so guarantees the city’s ultimate bankruptcy.
All of this implies a closer look must be taken at the mayor’s policies and the guidance he is receiving from his CFO, who should know better.
Forensic experts need to take a close look at what the city spends.
Who, we wonder, will be brave enough to call for such a look into the city’s declining financial situation?