Dear Friend,
Several weeks ago, during a radio interview, I described the information coming out of the Council's probe of city insurance procurement as something that would ultimately prove to involve a lot of smoke, and no fire. Today, the State Auditor released her report (click here to read report ) and that is exactly what she has found - no fire, as in, no fraud, no intent to deceive and no wrongdoing.
State Auditor Crit Luallen made several useful suggestions to improve policies and procurement procedures that have been in place at the city for more than 10 years, and those suggestions are appreciated and will be implemented. But she found no fraudulent behavior or wrongdoing by any member of my administration.
I am glad that I called the State Auditor into this situation. Her report should finally put an end to the Special Investigative Committee's unnecessary and costly investigation. We could have saved a lot of money had the Committee simply waited for the Auditor's objective report, which had been initiated prior to the first meeting of the Council's Special Investigative Committee. After all, with the addition of the state auditor, four auditing teams have now looked into this material and found no fraud. Even the Committee found no fraud.
Given how time consuming and expensive this process has been, I was surprised and disappointed to learn that on May 6 at least one councilmember had copies of both Fraud Risk Assessment Questionnaires, the documents that sparked this controversy. That was approximately one month prior to the creation of the Special Investigative Committee. This Councilmember, a member of the Committee, apparently sat on his or her hands while some Councilmembers made all kinds of accusations concerning the availability of these documents to Council. I want to be clear: the first time I saw the fraud risk assessment questionnaires was last week, when I read the state auditor's draft report.
Enough time and money have been spent investigating the unfounded fraud allegations. My focus remains on making progress for our city and its citizens. Let's move forward!
Let me know what you think about this or other issues confronting our city. Write me at mayor@lexingtonky.gov.
Sincerely,
Jim Newberry, Mayor