City Council Scuttles Audit Due to Budget Woes
A promise to investigate municipal finances evaporates after officials realize there is no cash left to pay the expert accountant.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Some of the councilmen who had been foremost in urging the necessity of having the city books audited by an expert accountant backed water last night, and the previous act ordering an investigation was rescinded. The matter was brought up in a communication from the city attorney, stating that he had been asked by the commissioner of public works to make a contract with Arkley, Chidester Co. to audit the books, but that no provision had been made for paying the $1,200 which the work was to cost. He suggested the passage of an ordinance transferring the amount from one of the other funds. That stumped the councilmen, inasmuch as the funds that could be drawn on are not in condition to stand a $1,200 transfer. In consideration of that fact, Councilman Duevel moved that the previous action of the council be rescinded. Thus a $1,200 job went glimmering and the public must for a while longer remain in ignorance of the ins and outs of municipal finances.
“Thus a $1,200 job went glimmering and the dear public must for a while longer remain in ignorance of the ins and outs of municipal finances.”
Budget shortfalls and the political theater of 'auditing' city government remain familiar tropes in Tacoma politics. The struggle between fiscal oversight and the reality of an empty treasury is a perennial municipal headache.
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