Comments on: City Commission Votes to Establish an Office of Inspector General

By: Lynette Halter

Lynette Halter — Sat, 27 Jun 2020 18:51:46 +0000

Sounds like too easily be an political appointment since under city auditor. Why isn’t an audit done by someone NOT connected to Tallahassee government?

By: Simone Jameson

Simone Jameson — Thu, 25 Jun 2020 04:06:28 +0000

In reply to COT Hostage. Yeah, this Inspector General item is 100% a Trojan horse that will be followed by an attempt to dismantle the Independent Ethics Board. The bigwigs want to ditch the Ethics Board, create an airport authority (taxing authority), and probably pursue stronger executive powers via changes to the City Charter in 2022. It's a long game and this seemingly innocuous window-dressing move is part of it.

By: Ben

Ben — Wed, 24 Jun 2020 01:57:22 +0000

In reply to Staff.

The way I read the ordinance …………..the City Auditor will be the IG, not two separate things (kinda weird being both City Auditor and IG but whatever). All it appears to do is add investigative authority to the City Auditor and change the name.
The question that needs to be asked…..is this just a change in name only or will the City Auditor/IG have resources to really do investigations or will this just take away from auditing.

I guess this makes a little sense, the Independent Ethics Board has been around something like 5 years and never investigated anything (football tickets, wedding discounts, and so on)….including keep its own house in order (cough Julie Meadows-Keefe cough cough). Someone needs to do it.

By: Terry Ryan

Terry Ryan — Tue, 23 Jun 2020 22:50:14 +0000

My Correction: City Auditor DOES report to and is hired by Commissioners – so, IG reporting to Auditor should be acceptable, in my humble opinion, if given leeway needed. Time will tell.

By: Snidely Whiplash

Snidely Whiplash — Tue, 23 Jun 2020 22:35:29 +0000

In reply to Staff. Thank you that is good information!!!

By: Terry Ryan

Terry Ryan — Tue, 23 Jun 2020 21:55:06 +0000

In the corporate world, audit departments report directly to the Board. In Tallahassee, it reports to the City Manager, not to the Commissioners. Ergo, the new IG reports to someone they could turn out investigating! NO!

However, not unexpected, since in 2011 Commissioners approved the City Manager to approve bidded infrastructure fast track contracts, no matter how much! Previously, contracts over $250K had to be approved by Commissioners.

Also, the City Manager is not even required to include these contracts as an agenda item to at least review. Comm Miller expressed concerns of Commissioners relinquishing this serious responsibility. Commission approved stipulating a one year review.

A recent PRR did not produce evidence this review occurred. Comments from City staff, however, indicated they loved not having to include these approvals in Commissioners’ Agenda since it saved them a lot of time putting Agendas together!

Once again, so much for transparency to us citizens.

By: Staff

Staff — Tue, 23 Jun 2020 21:20:55 +0000

In reply to Snidely Whiplash. City Auditor is hired by and reports directly to City Commission.

By: Anon

Anon — Tue, 23 Jun 2020 21:16:44 +0000

CoverUp General
on another Note: Respiratory Acidosis is a Medical Condition

By: Vernon

Vernon — Tue, 23 Jun 2020 20:37:37 +0000

If they’re going to use an Inspector General, the ethics board should be abolished. There’s just no need for both….unless it just a political payoff job…then we’ll probably need at least 12 independant members on the ethics board at $175k salary.

By: Snidely Whiplash

Snidely Whiplash — Tue, 23 Jun 2020 20:21:52 +0000

Here is the chain of command of concern:
Reese Goad City Manger
City Auditor
Office of The Inspector General

See the problem?

In order for the fabulous new warm fuzzy feeling of trust for the COT Employees and COT Citizens to actually become a real thing we would require an honest man at the top of the chain of command. Wouldent we?

Well we dont have that in Reese Goad now do we?
No we dont.

Nice try looser Commissioners but once again you are spinning your wheels and spending our money and accomplishing nothing whatsoever.
What’s wrong with you Commissioners?
A quote from Grandma: “You all aint got no good sense.”
Thanks Grandma.