I recently read two self-serving letters and one self-serving “I told you so commentary.” The first letter was addressed to the editor by a former city councilor taking credit for stopping increases to our electric bills by threatening the takeover of the electric company (LCEC). The second letter written by our former director of finance was forwarded to city councilors prior to our workshop on the forensic audit held this past Monday. The tenor of that letter was “See, I did nothing wrong.”

The “I told you so” commentary is the one you are reading now.

The first case, as a result of a former city councilor meddling in city affairs, the city spent X dollars on consultants and who knows how many hours of wasted time on the part of city staff to prepare for and hold numerous meetings by volunteer residents who agreed to serve on the “takeover” committee.

The reason that LCEC was able to “hold the line” on prices was, in addition to its own cost-saving measures, its being able to enter into a contract with a new source of electric power. Does anyone truly believe that LCEC would have made this commitment if the price of oil was continuing to rise and it did have a guarantee from its new source of electricity that the price per kilowatt hour would not increase for at least a year?

In the second case, I must admit that I was surprised to hear from the auditors conducting a forensic audit of the Collier Blvd. project that violating the requirements of our City Charter regarding the monetary limits with which the city manager can approve without city council action and the State law governing the “bidding” process by the city manager and staff is not considered to be fraud. I guess you have to have been photographed taking money under the table for them to label it fraud. How about doing it in order to save your job? Boy, are we splitting hairs or what? The forensic auditor found evidence regarding all of these violations, but refused to define it as “fraud.”

In the case of the “I told you so” commentary, you may recall a letter I sent to the editor shortly after I was found guilty of “unintentionally” violating public record laws by erasing e-mails from my home computer regarding city business. I noted in that letter that neither the states attorney’s office who brought charges at the instigation of several prominent residents and members of the now defunct “Celebrate Marco” group nor the judge had any idea of the potential ramifications of their action on the one part, and finding of guilt on the part of the other.

The reason for my comments then is based on the fact that there is probably not one local government in the State of Florida which has not “lost public records,” intentionally or unintentionally. Well, guess what folks, the forensic audit did indeed note that some records were missing just for one (albeit large) project right here in “river city.” No idea if it was intentional or not.

So, what is the states attorney’s office to do? Bring the city up on charges and ask for the maximum fine of $500? I doubt this will happen since the instigation of charges against me were purely political.

I’ll close this commentary by noting that the recommendations included in the forensic audit, if enacted by the city staff with the support of the City Council, will hopefully result in major changes of how the city operates its day-to-day operations. As one member of the Ad Hoc Forensic Committee (a retired CPA) recommended at the conclusion of the workshop, the only way to guarantee that the recommendations of the auditors will be enforced is for the city council to hire a full-time internal auditor who monitors all financial transactions and reports only to the City Council.

Given the history and audit of only one project, I am afraid that my concerns about the city staff taking end runs around the city council regardless of state and local laws have been confirmed; therefore, I will support the establishment of this new position on the basis that this individual will likely result in ultimate savings to the city and will more than make up the cost of having he or she onboard to guide the city council in our decisions.

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