AUDITORS BLAST PERKINS ADMINISTRATION SLOPPY FINANCIAL DEALINGS…AGAIN
5/24/08
In its Final Significant Deficiency letter (formerly the Management Letter) accompanying the city’s recent audit, the auditors again blasted the faulty financial management of the Perkins administration. WE ARE PRINTING THE PERTINENT PARTS OF THE DEFICIENCY LETTER following these comments. Although Perkins received the Deficiency Letter on March 3, 2008, he did not give it the City Council until the middle of May. After reading the letter, we can understand why he did not want this made public.
If a private company ran its finances the way the Perkins administration runs the city’s finances, the CEO, the CFO, and all staff involved in the financial mismanagement would be immediately fired. On the pages, which follow, you will find the auditors comments and the recommendations. We have omitted the city’s response to the findings because each year the auditors make the findings and recommendations, the city promises to rectify the incompetent errors, but hardly ever does and Perkins does nothing about it and the City Council sits like mummies saying little or nothing about the ineptness of the city employees hired by Perkins.
We also want to express AN OPINION about the $80,000-$90,000 city auditors, Wilson-Price of Montgomery. Note the very last paragraph on the last page where they say the deficiency letter and information it contains is for the Mayor, Council, and city employees ONLY. We know that this statement is erroneous because the League of Municipalities has told at least two members of the City Council in writing THAT THE DEFICICIENCY LETTER IS PUBLIC INFORMATION. We wonder why Wilson-Price would think the public would not know what is happening in the Selma City government.
PLEASE ready carefully the Deficiency Letter which follows and form your own opinions about the badly managed state of city finances. We were especially interested in the comment about the Assistant City Treasurer PREPARING THE BILLS, COLLECTING THE MONEY, AND POSTING THE ACTIVITY FOR THE INERT LANDFILL. Our understanding is that THE ASSISTANT CITY TREASURER IS MAYOR PERKINS’ FIRST COUSIN! We had often wondered what she did and now we know!
READ the Deficiency Letter and understand why Selma can not survive four more years with Perkins as Mayor!
