14 comments

  1. Books? Lennie, are you holding back on us? How many books were there? I find it mind-boggling some idiots still aren’t sure or don’t believe the books were cooked. Maybe it’s because they believe the books were fried instead.

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  4. As a person with governmental accounting experience, I can tell you it’s amazingly easy to produce a hot beef brisket budget. It’s a simple matter of overstating revenue projections and pulling out/deferring expenses. It’s actually the responsibility of the city council to oversee these budgets and question variances. Since not a one of them has any financial management experience, it’s no wonder the budgets are not worth being bathroom paper.

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    2. You are absolutely correct. So why aren’t people calling for McCarthy’s head? Why has McCarthy refused to hire outside independent accountants to be fully involved in the budget process? There has been money in the budget to do so.
      He is more to blame than anyone else. The council has a role in the process but under McCarthy they have abdicated their responsibilities.

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      1. negligence

        n. failure to exercise the care toward others which a reasonable or prudent person would do in the circumstances, or taking action which such a reasonable person would not. Negligence is accidental as distinguished from “intentional torts” (assault or trespass, for example) or from crimes, but a crime can also constitute negligence, such as reckless driving. Negligence can result in all types of accidents causing physical and/or property damage, but can also include business errors and miscalculations, such as a sloppy land survey. In making a claim for damages based on an allegation of another’s negligence, the injured party (plaintiff) must prove: a) that the party alleged to be negligent had a duty to the injured party–specifically to the one injured or to the general public, b) that the defendant’s action (or failure to act) was negligent–not what a reasonably prudent person would have done, c) that the damages were caused (“proximately caused”) by the negligence. An added factor in the formula for determining negligence is whether the damages were “reasonably foreseeable” at the time of the alleged carelessness. If the injury is caused by something owned or controlled by the supposedly negligent party, but how the accident actually occurred is not known (like a ton of bricks falls from a construction job), negligence can be found based on the doctrine of res ipsa loquitor (Latin for “the thing speaks for itself”). Furthermore, in six states (Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Maryland) and the District of Columbia, an injured party will be denied any judgment (payment) if found to have been guilty of even slight “contributory negligence” in the accident. This archaic and unfair rule has been replaced by “comparative negligence” in the other 44 states, in which the negligence of the claimant is balanced with the percentage of blame placed on the other party or parties (“joint tortfeasors”) causing the accident. In automobile accident cases in 16 states the head of the household is held liable for damages caused by any member of the family using the car under what is called the “family purpose” doctrine. Nine states (California, New York, Michigan, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Minnesota, Nevada, Rhode Island) make the owner of the vehicle responsible for all damages caused by a driver given permission to use the car, whether or not the negligent driver has assets or insurance to pay a judgment. Eight states (Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia) allow the owner to rebut a presumption that the driver was authorized to use the car. Negligence is one of the greatest sources of litigation (along with contract and business disputes) in the United States.

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  5. Outside accountant is responsible for certifying the results. The auditor is supposed to use reasonable care to certify these results. The CPA should be validating the results, rather than taking them at face value. File a lawsuit asap!

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    1. Certifying results for an annual report is different from putting together a budget. The audit will identify if there are variances in accounts and provided a budget to actual report, but no one would look at it to question differences anyway!

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  6. Cooking the books is an interesting phrase and certainly suggests direct and purposeful intent to deliver a numerical story that is different from reality. In that sense, our “books” have continued to be cooked. The kitchen staff may have changed but the menus out front don’t look that different, do they? I am talking about MONTHLY FINANCIAL REPORTS (mfr’s). That is all the City Council gets as an entree monthly.
    Of course there is the Capital Budget “feast” once per year taxpayers are not called to, but it is so thin a course by itself, $40 Million of expenditures can be listed on one sheet of paper. No telling how more than 30 items are boiled, broiled, grilled, deep-fat fried, sauteed, braised, chilled, or merely served uncooked at room temperature.
    And when we get to the Dessert course where all the different financial dealings of the City in a fiscal year are presented in one place, Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, no one pays attention, certainly not the City Council. Have they been too stuffed to care? When 20 or more errors in that City document were presented to them last year, did any one of them respond?

    And that gets to the real problem. Cooks with dirty hands? They fail to wash up thoroughly while working in the kitchen. They don’t seem to care with how sick that makes taxpayers. Maybe they have gotten to used to a simple bowl of pasta with marinara gravy? Or not? Taxpayers need to get in on the kitchen inspections. It is that simple message I have attempted to deliver for the past five years. How many want to be watchdogs on kitchen patrol? Time will tell.

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  7. *** I don’t know who remembers when Bob Curwen and I convinced the B&A committee along with the rest of the council later to use some of the city’s legislation line-item money to hire a recommended legal accounting firm to observe, assist, study and review the overall financial process the city’s B&A committee along with the entire council used to work towards a new balanced city budget. A final verbal and written review on how the B&A did and ways to improve the entire process along with an overall review in general, towards better possible changes! However, that was my last year on the city council and all the info. offered in the financial review towards different approaches on doing the city budget went by the wayside, thus leaving the same old system that’s used today! ***

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