The Salisbury City audit was supposed to be completed before November 1, 2007. Of course that didn’t happen. We were then treated to a little speech by Salisbury Council President Louise Smith explaining that she had taken the Mayor to the woodshed over this and that the audit would be complete NO LATER than December 17. (of course this displayed Louise’s usual disdain for her own rules as council comments or speeches are specifically prohibited in the rules) Needless to say, the audit was not completed by December 17t. The council was then promised the audit before Christmas. Don’t worry, Barrie Tilghman and her crew are still batting 1.000. The council was then promised the audit before the New Year.
Well, 2008 is here and a document purporting to be the completed FY 2007 audit was delivered to council members just prior to close of business on December 31st! Now I say “purporting” because I haven’t looked through it yet and I’m not sure what was distributed to council. I do know that Salisbury taxpayers have again been shown that the Tilghman administration is quick to the trough when it comes to minor issues like raising taxes and blotting the bureaucracy, yet are incapable of balancing their own check book.
According to the Tilghman Family soldiers Gary Comegys and Pam Oland the comparison of completing the audit on time and a family balancing their checkbook each month is not a valid comparison. REALLY? At the December 10th meeting Ms. Oland claimed that the city runs a trial balance each month. Yet, for some reason the administration uses fund balances that are 6, 12, even 18 months old when asked (by the only two fiscally responsible members of the City Council) to justify spending plans or fee increases.
Salisbury voters should remember that the only reason that they aren’t paying a 10% increase in their water and sewer rates is because Ms. Campbell and Ms. Cohen kept questioning the accuracy of City Administrator John Pick’s numbers regarding the city’s Water and Sewer Fund. When the truth finally came out, even Barrie’s lap dog council majority couldn’t support the Mayor’s demands for an increase.
When Salisbury taxpayers are told, time and again, by the Barrie Tilghman Family that the timely completion of the audit doesn’t matter they should think seriously about calling the Mayor / Godmother and asking if their timely payment of taxes matters either.
Crossposted on Delmarva Dealings
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Something stinks here. Something is being hidden. Maybe I'm suspicious by nature, but I'd bet good money something underhanded is being hidden. I hope that someone with an auditing background is just waiting for this thing to come out to go thru it with a fine toothed comb. If something is shady is found, hold it until just the right time so that it will be fresh and ongoing as the elections come up. You will then see the solidarity between those responsible dissolve (and we know who they are) as they struggle to avoid blame. There is no reason this mayor shouldn't be toast this election.
ReplyDeleteGA:
ReplyDeleteIt's great to hear your voice again -- please keep speaking for us.
Lets make 2008 Barrie Tilghman's last full year in office, so that she's free to work full time for Hillary Clinton (they deserve each other).
Absent fraud, the audit is simply a means of keeping things in order, generally, so some delay is probably meaningless. But the manner in which Barrie and her puppets have postured about this year's delay has revealed their incompetence and real absurdity as public officials. Any in the case of Louise Smith it shows that she can't keep her word about anything.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone know whether it takes Wicomico County this long to do the annual audit, and if it uses the same auditor (Trice Geary)?
ReplyDeleteWelcome back GA, it is great to read your thoughts on this annual fiasco. Hope you will stick around awhile.
ReplyDeleteDonna
If you think all that is scary, look at the mayor's proposed capital improvement plan (CIP), which is available on the city's website.
ReplyDeleteThat "CIP" is really scary -- here's a link to it:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ci.salisbury.md.us/Portals/0/CityServices/PrelimCip2009-2013.pdf