Last week I questioned how a City Administration that claimed it was near broke as they cut millions of dollars from the Police Department budget, could all of a sudden have an $800,00 dollar surplus and make an $11 million dollar payment to the pension fund.
A recent Internal Audit might answer some of those questions. It appears that millions of unused dollars from Capitol Improvement projects, some dating back 15 years, are sitting in City accounts without much oversight and very loose controls.
Could this be referred to as the "City Hall Slush Fund"? Only time will tell , but I think the last sentence of the Auditor's report could be very interesting
Mr. Brookman, I just really wish you would see that the city's financial problems really began with the 7,400+ people who voted for 'Strong Mayor form of Government'. It produced Eddie 'the criminal' Perez & his quest for consultants to manage the city's interest. What exactly was so wrong with the Council/Manager form of government? There were more checks & balances, less misconduct, qualified professionals to run city departments, etc. Many of the best financial minds in the city were shoved aside (forced retirements, etc.) while the fox raided the city's treasury. Those who benefited the most were law firms, phony contractors, consultants, cronies, etc. with very little oversight. Purchasing functions were replaced with 'P' cards. I just think many have forgotten what existed before. The Mayor did not need a spokesperson, he spoke directly to the people. Residents were able to speak directly to city department heads, city officials & city staff. What we have is a disaster and no one will admit it. I guess the regular scandals are more newsworthy.
ReplyDeletePlease check your facts Brookman! You are wrong about the City's finances! The City collected $6M more tax revenue than was originally budgeted and generated another $6M in bond premium financing from the April bond financing. Not everything here in City Hall is a conspiracy!
ReplyDeleteOf course..when Sandy was running the city under the city manger form of government she was efficient and the city ran like a well oiled machine. It was only when she ran the city as COO under Segarra that things kind of got F***d up! BTW can you list some of the "best financial minds" in the city you refer to. Because I think some of them were recycled back in under this administration.
ReplyDeleteEnough is though to make everything they do suspect
ReplyDeleteI agree that there's some ignorant behavior in City Hall, but I assure you that your assessment here is incorrect as it relates to the budget surplus. As for the "other matters" in the report, that may be a completely other separate story.
ReplyDeleteEverything is Subject to an investigation. Including Department Heads who still do not live here. Oh, a gal who is on her second pension and is the only one who knows anything about Harford's neighborhoods.(After many, many years she always continues to get a paid job) Does she have a CITY CAR that we do not know about? I wonder if a young Hartford resident could do her job and do it BETTER. We do have NRZ's. Hartford residents really DO VOLUNTEER many community hours. M m m m m, maybe Hartford resident should be more vocal on many issues. Especially when it pertains to the Mayors hiring of his cabinent and Department Heads.
ReplyDelete$6 million in bond premium? The dirty secret is if you received a bond premium you are paying an interest rate higher than you should. So for $6 million in kickback today, we pay many more $millions over many years. But who cares? They will all be gone.
ReplyDeleteThe bond refinancing saves the City MILLIONS in interest b/c they're restructuring old debt at higher rates and refinancing them at lower rates while spreading the payments out more years. It was a win/win for the City and its taxpayers b/c it will allow the City to keep taxes from rising. And they happened to get a premium out of it to help balance the budget. Instead of making false insinuations, maybe you should be praising the City's Treasurer and Tax Collector for their fine efforts this year.
ReplyDeleteI must have missed that in the press release, I thought it was the Mayor that singlehandedly closed the gap
ReplyDeleteI hate to make this blog a primer on municipal finance, but a "bond premium" is a cash kickback the city gets for promising to pay a higher than market interest rate over the life of the bonds. The money is great if you need it now, but in the end taxpayers pay $millions more than they should have.
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