Mayor Garner said that he checked his mailbox prior to the meeting and the audit was not there. Does he really think the citizens of New Albany is going to believe that excuse? We sure don't!
The audit painted a poor picture of the City's finances.
Following are some of the highlights from the audit.
Condition of Records:
1) "Record of balances were not fully reconciled to depository balances during the audit period"
"...As a result of undetected errors as of December 31, 2004 the City had $88,947 more in unidentified cash recorded in its records then being held in its bank accounts."
2) "Some disbursements for the payment of medical claims paid in 2004 were not entered in the records of the City. We also noted instances of transactions being recorded months after the actual disbursements were made for medical claims"
3) "The City does not maintain sufficient detailed records of capital assets for the City owned capital assets, which also include Wastewater Utility owned utility plant in service accounts."
Overdrawn Cash Balances:
Fund ................................................Amount
General............................................$2,897,556
Motor Vehicle Highway....................$221,846
Local Road and Street......................$181,407
Law Enforcement Continuing Education.$23,720
Unsafe Building...............................$57,608
Indiana Housing Board Rental Rehab......$11,428
Reserve Liability...............................$34,491
TIF Park East Industrial...................$50,110
Medical/Drug Fund..........................$72,653
"The cash balance of any fund may not be reduced below zero. Routinely overdrawn funds could be an indicator of serious financial problems which should be investigated by the governmental unit (Accounting and Uniform Compliance Guidelines Manual for Cities and Towns, Chapter 7)"
Appropriations:
"The records presented for audit indicated the following expenditures in excess of budgeted appropriations."
Fund ....................................Excess Amount Expended
General........................................$1,037,578
Motor Vehicle Highway................$285,788
Local Road and Street..................$356,564
Park Nonreverting.......................$19,321
Ambulance Runs.........................$6,916
Park Cumulative Building..........."$277
"Indiana Code 6-1.1-18-4 states in part,"...The proper offices of a political subdivision shall appropriate funds in such a manner that the expenditures for a year do not exceed its budget for that year as finally determined under this article."
Bad Debts and Uncollectible Accounts:
"The City has contracted with Medical Billing Group LLC for the billings and collections of ambulance service runs. During 2004 the Medical Billing Group wrote off $132,637...uncollectible. The minutes presented for audit did not indicate that these accounts were presented to the Board of Works for approval."
Delinquent Wastewater Accounts:
"Delinquent wastewater fees and penalties had not been recorded with the County Recorder nor were they certified to the County Auditor which would result in a lien against the property."
The Council Members and the citizens present were quite shocked with the results of this audit. It was a lot worse than the Council imagined.
The Mayor did not have any answers to the Council's inquiries. He tried to blame the "previous Administration" by stating that this was what he had to work with when he took office. But we must remember that he took office at the beginning of 2004. It is time for the Mayor to stop playing the "blame game", and take responsibility for his lack of leadership, mismanagement, and wasteful spending.
After private citizen, Valla Ann Bolovschak, addressed the Council, Councilman Steve Price highly recommended that the Scribner Project be put on hold for two years. In light of the information, Ms. Bolovschak brought to the citizens and the Council, the Council needs to take a long hard look at what is really going on. Mr. Price went on to say we cannot make decisions about further expenditures until we know what we have to work with. At this the Mayor replied that Kay (Garry) had all of the information.
Councilman Dan Coffey in anger raised his copy of the audit in the air and exclaimed that it took a private citizen to finally put a copy of the audit in the hands of the Council members.
Councilman Bill Schmidt was gracious and thanked Ms. Bolovschak for bringing this matter to the Council's attention and furnishing them with a copy of the audit.
We at Freedom of Speech still think Mayor James Garner is not listening to the citizens and Council about our concerns. We do not see competence in his Administration. We feel his decisions have been based on assumptions, "best guesstimates", and insufficient figures, inaccuracy, and unrealistic reasoning. By law, we have a system of checks and balances. He ignores this. We feel it is time for him to resign.
It is time for a full investigation. As stated in the audit we cannot continue to let our city be run in this manner. These are not a few minor infractions. We are on the verge of bankruptcy.
We here at Freedom of Speech can only wonder what the 2005 Audit has in store for us.
All the citizens of New Albany want is "hope" and the truth!
