A Neosho city councilwoman is weighing whether to gather signatures for a state audit of the city.
City Councilwoman Heather Bowers this morning confirmed that she had obtained the petition papers for the audit, and that she requested them a few weeks ago on a separate matter.
Bowers since has not collected signatures yet, but is now revisiting the issue in the wake of admissions by City Manager Jan Blase that he used a state loan reserved for new airport hangars to pay the city’s bills and make payroll.
Part of the problem, she said, is that a state audit would cost the city between $35,000 and $50,000, and she had questions about whether the city could afford it in lights of its budget crunch.
Still, she acknowledged that the STAR loan money might have changed things.
“From a public standpoint, I think we really need an audit,” she said.
The Neosho City Council met behind closed doors Saturday morning to the discuss the “hiring, firing, disciplining or promoting” of an employee. No action was taken, although Mayor Jeff Werneke announced afterward that both he and Mayor Pro Tem Richard Davidson will investigate whether the council has been fully informed of the city’s financial condition in recent months.
Both Werneke and other members of the council, including Bowers, have cited requirements in both the charter and the city’s code of ordinances mandating the city manager keep the city apprised of the city’s financial condition and needs.
City Finance Director Bob Blackwood, meanwhile, this morning told the Globe that the city’s general revenue fund is “in the hole,” although he had no concerns about its ability to pay its bills or make payroll in the coming months.
The general revenue fund has been borrowing money from the city’s water and wastewater fund for the last five or six months, and perhaps the last seven.
“It was not taken, it was borrowed,” Blackwood told the Globe.
Asked about the city’s overall financial condition, he replied, “The city is living on the edge financially, and has been living on the edge financially for a while.”
Blackwood attributed that condition wholly to the recession, and he said a number of other cities face the same situation.
