The 2004 Audit Findings

The City Audit for 2004 is nothing short of a horror story. The inaccuracies and the ineptitude it points out are only the tip of a vary large iceberg. The City of New Albany is, quite unfortunately, symbolicly the 'Titanic' that has crashed into this mountain of mismanagment, misappropriations, and mishandling of City finances and functionality.
We are now left 'dead in the water', with damages that are so devestating it will indeed take years to correct. That is about the only true statement made by Mayor Garner at the last Council Meeting. The rest of his blubbering "it's not my fault", and "it's because of the past administrations", just doesn't cut it with us, the people of the inner-city who are taking the hit for every bad decision and mis-step this Administration has taken.
Economic development is at a standstill due to the unwillingness to adhere to a Federal and State agreements to make critical repairs to the sanitary sewage system, and every day that passes bring us closer to the moment our ship will slip beneath the cold, dark waters of the abyss. Who knows how many will survive?
How many souls have disappeared from our City? Just look around at all the "For Sale" and "For Rent" signs that are littering the landscape. It's all that's left of a once proud little City that chugged along with residents who lived their entire lives in homes that now house renters, or have been left to rot from neglect.
Now, we are presented with a City Audit that clearly shows the dismal failures of the leadership of the our City.
We have multiple issues we intend to address over the course of the next few days, but for now we are going to leave things here and allow folks to start commenting on the issues they feel are most important.