As independent as we want you to be
While proclaiming he is independent, a City Council subcommittee Wednesday nonetheless blocked City Auditor Pete Gonzales Jr. from conducting a playground safety review because he had not cleared the project beforehand.
I don’t know whether or not the playground safety review was needed but I do know that the auditor isn’t really independent if you he can only perform audits approved by the council.
Are we to believe that council members would never have any conflict of interest that might make them “reluctant” to approve audits? I don’t know if it is still the case but at one point each council member had a certain amount of discretionary funds he or she could spend on district projects. Would the auditor be required to get permission to start an audit on these projects?
Was it appropriate for Gonzales did start a safety performance audit of the playground equipment? Who knows? But by demanding approval over every audit undertaken, the city council has seriously undermined any trust the public might have had in the auditor investigating city council funding “irregularities.” If the Gonzales consistently showed poor judgment in which audits to conduct, the council could fire him. But now it looks like he doesn’t have to worry about exercising his judgment, the council will do it for him.
Technorati Tags: San Antonio City Auditor, Pete Gonzales Jr., John Clamp, Delicia Herrera, Diane Cibrian
Filed under: City Auditor
What is going on here?…
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