TMC: Thirty Miles of Corruption

WHO WILL BE HIDING BEHIND THE COMPUTER NEXT WHEN THE AUDITOR COMES ASKING QUESTIONS? CHECK BACK WEEKLY…

The Riverside Coalition for Police Accountability, which was formed in January 1999, in response to the death of Tyisha Miller.  Its mission is in improving relations between the Riverside Police Department (RPD) and the community.    Well, RCPA has generated a list of recommendations related to the departure of  City Manager Brad Hudson.  This was submitted to the City of Riverside by Deborah Wong, RCPA Co-Chair, and Michael Dunn.  Their  flyer to share with others in within this link, we are told feel free to share it with others.

The main recommended points were:

• WE CALL FOR an audit of the City budget covering Hudson’s entire 6-year term as City Manager.
• WE CALL FOR both an independent audit (by Moss Adams, the City’s new outside auditor) and an internal audit.
• WE CALL FOR careful scrutiny of the City Manager’s discretionary fund, the asset forfeiture fund, bonds, and utilities.
• WE CALL FOR an audit of the City’s process for awarding contracts to private businesses and developers.
• WE CALL FOR an audit of the City’s hiring and firing processes over the last 6 years. We note the pronounced ‘whitening’ of City Hall’s top staff under Mr. Hudson.
• WE CALL FOR an audit of the City’s possible abuse of the U.S. Whistleblower Protection Act.
• WE CALL FOR the Charter Review Committee to recommend more detailed guidelines for the processes and procedures directing the City Council’s selection of a City Manager.

I would also like to add that it is an interesting move on City Council Andy Melendrez’s part to request Chief Financial Officer Paul Sundeen to provide a tutorial on audits and finances.  And according to Mary Shelton, who writes the River City Cop Watch Blog,  Sundeen believes an independent audit is too expensive and wouldn’t be necessary in his opinion. He claims no bid splitting has ever taken place ever but if it happens, he should be notified to investigate it. She goes on to say, the city spent $65 million on its own questionable bonds that Riverside County didn’t want but that’s not too much money.  But an audit is…  City Councilwoman Nancy Hart, who incidently heads the Finance Community, responded to her question regarding city bonds that will come due in July 2012 and the decreases in revenue streams available to pay them by stating, ” We do not have outstanding Bonds with no revenue stream to repay them”.  But a reliable inside source within City Hall is stating the city’s much worse off than they had thought, and that the city can’t pay the bonds that are due in 2012.  In my opinion in order to clear the air and bring trust back to the community of Riverside, the City Council should request a forensic audit of the City of Riverside by State Controller John Chiang.   Mayer Hoffman McCann had been the City of Riverside’s auditing firm for the last five years.  In John Chiang’s review of the audits conducted by Mayer Hoffman McCann for the City of Bell,  he found that the auditor “appears to have been a rubberstamp rather than a responsible auditor committed to providing the public with the transparency and accountability that could have prevented the mismanagement of the City’s finances by Bell officials.”  If there is nothing to hide this should not be a problem.  But my final thoughts are that it must be this new type of KoolAid permeating the Hall, it just make things not be as they appear, and I got to tell you the experts are telling me it’s pretty bad stuff…