I find it interesting that the mayor was quick to assemble a puppet theatre with his charter revision commission, but the council has drug their feet about the audit committee;
I recently applied for a citizen volunteer vacancy that exists on the City Council Audit Committee. I received a response from the chairman that the committee had issues with allowing me to serve, as I may be personally impacted if the Downtown Switching Yard project moves forward. I can speculate that given the public objections and incremental funding required, city administration is working on an exit strategy to abandon this project. This then leads me to believe there must be other reasons for being rejected for the position.
Exit strategy? This ship (or should we say train) has already sailed. Choo-Choo!
I’ve been critical of the pace of the project and had filed a Freedom of Information Act request relating to this project which the city stonewalled for six months before being forced to comply with the law. My credentials and background to serve on this committee are not an issue, as I have worked in corporate finance for more than 20 years, in addition to teaching auditing at the college level for more than five years. I teach my students that a good auditor is independent and possesses a measure of professional skepticism. Apparently, the City Council would prefer that citizen members of this committee not have the independence required to review the city’s business.
A free society demands open and honest government, as well as citizen involvement. I’ve asked that I be removed from consideration, even though no one else has expressed an interest in serving. My hope is that someone will apply and the City Council will allow the independence required for the position.
As you can see by Randy’s job title at Citi, he is well qualified for the VOLUNTEER position. Makes you wonder if this is a matter of personal objections by the committee itself, the city council or the mayor, or just a resistance to making the committee complete.
As you may remember, a little over a year ago we had this audit committee debacle;
Did SDN contact the city and let them know they were investigating him? Or that he resigned? He resigned last year but still sat on the committee until May of this year? This is all suspect. What did Brad tell the city in regards to the resignation? It’s not like the city doesn’t have a direct contact with SDN. Councilor Vernon Brown is marketing manager of SDN. He certainly had to know about the investigation or AT LEAST the resignation. Didn’t he think it would be wise to alert the Audit Committee?
I still have never gotten a straight forward answer as to why councilor Brown kept quiet about this? I totally understand not interfering with a Federal investigation, but he could have quietly alerted the city attorney to keep an eye on Brad, or at least put pressure on him to resign.
Mayor has NOTHING to do with, nor control of, audit committee. And the audit committee “debacle” is nothing of the kind. The debacle is that a credentialed professional (CPA) threw his ethics under the bus and stole from his employer. Councilor Brown’s actions where Brown’s alone. To slam the audit committee and its VOLUNTEERS for the embezzler’s actions at his place of employment or for some imagined communication slight by an individual not on the audit committee is irresponsible and serves no purpose whatsoever.
Yes, Brown’s actions were his own, I don’t think I implied otherwise.
“To slam the audit committee and its VOLUNTEERS for the embezzler’s actions”
Didn’t know that I was?
This is an interesting case though. Who is rejecting Harkless’ application? The committee itself or the city council? Or is the city council unaware of his application?
Audit Committee is appointed by the Council, not the Mayor.
TY for the clarification, I couldn’t remember what committee it was that they appointed.
That leaves me with even more questions. Who on the council had a problem with Mr. Harkless’ appointment? Or was the council even notified that he applied?
The Audit Committee may be appointed by the Council, but we all know the Mayor sticks his slimy nose into every decision. If you don’t think the Mayor doesn’t force his decisions on the council – or his puppets (can anyone say Jim Entenman?) – you’re nuts.
This is too bad for the community on this decision. Randy is obviously qualified and was thrown out because he asked questions on the railroad and his property? I can’t wait until someone buries this city administration on the “intentional backdoor demolish” of the RR relocation project. Jonathan Ellis – are you out there?
Just a side note – did anyone notice that De Knudson had a nice little donation from Cindy Huether when she was running for city council? Must have been in return for De suddenly throwing her support towards the EC in the industrial park versus a DT – which she always championed for in the past. What a frickin’ circus – but very embarrassing.
I was told this morning that Harkless may own property in the an area that ‘may’ be purchased for RR relocation. That is why he was rejected.
The audit committee chair said this to me in an email;
‘I don’t know Harkless, it was only after I asked other members of the Audit Committee and then followed it up with the City Attorney’s office that I learned of a possible conflict. The rest of the council was not informed of his application or of our concern of a possible conflict.’
So I am a little confused, the council chooses the audit committee members, but apparently the audit committee reviews the applicants? The council should review those applicant’s first, then it can be sent to the attorney’s office and the audit committee for review. Kinda backwards if you ask me.
This goes right along with the three new projects city hall is proposing. More conflicts of interest and no one available to do anything about it. We cannot see the rejected contract bid for EC, we don’t get a voice in projects, we can’t have qualified people auditing and city council members cannot ask questions. What a city! What a government!
Oh and by the way, we can’t afford an EC but do it anyway because we had no one auditing the finance department when they ran the EC vote…
Do you think I will get a code violation for the hole I just made in the sheetrock of my wall for driving my head thru it?
Be careful l3wis, if you start you may not be able to stop… Would our esteemed code enforcer say you were remodeling without a permit?