"City Manager accepts responsibility for financial problems?"

At last night's Commission Meeting the City Manager told the Commission that he felt that sometimes things he says "get misunderstood" and that he wanted them to know that he was at fault and responsible for the unbalanced city finances.

Following the Managers acceptance of responsibility the new finance director then gave an update that she had balanced the books up to June, but she had a lot of catching up to do because nothing had been entered after the time that the previous director had left. I know the City Manager certainly couldn't blame the previous director for not doing the books during that period of time considering he was no longer employed with the City. The City Manager should be able to perform those duties when necessary.

That's part of his responsibility according to statute.

"He or she shall prepare and submit the annual budget to the governing body and also keep the city fully advised as to the financial conditions and needs of the city."

And what about the Commission's responsibility in all of this?

The governing body shall be responsible for the manager's efficient administration of the city's business. All administrative functions and departments of the city shall be established by ordinance. The manager shall be responsible for the enforcement of the laws and ordinances and for the proper discharge of the duties of the respective city administrative officers and employees. The manager shall appoint and remove all nonelective heads of departments, officers and employees of the city. The city manager may perform the duties and act as the head of any department for which he or she is qualified, and may designate one person to be the head of two (2) or more departments or offices of the city.

By statute the City Auditor has some responsibility too...

75-1126. Procedure when audit discloses law violation or grounds for ouster. When any audit under this act indicates violation of a penal statute or discloses reasonable ground for removal from office, it shall be the duty of the licensed municipal public accountant or accountants or certified public accountant or certified public accountants signing the report of such audit to file one copy of the report with the county attorney.


I don't understand why we all have to be constantly reminded by the Mayor and Auditor that "there is no missing money." Ya know, If I can't find my car keys then I say they are missing, and that doesn't mean I think someone stole them! So let's just call it what it is...unaccounted for. Perhaps that will make everyone feel better. I am not making any accusations about what happened to any money, I am only stating my opinions on the facts that we do know and that is that more than one person was not doing their job! (But you can bet they were still collecting their pay.)

Of course the previous finance director is no longer employed with the City, but the City Manager still is and should be held accountable for his neglect of duties in properly supervising his former employee as well as not maintaining the city finances for the past two months, let alone the previous year. Did he as well as the Commission not get a proper "heads-up" from last year's audit which disclosed the unbalanced books and accounting mistakes?

Somehow I doubt that his admission of such a big mistake will end up in his personnel file.