By Brother Love
Special to the Courier
THE LOVE THAT MAKES YOU SICK
Contrary to what Councilor Jerry “Pops”
Barnes would have you believe about
the African American community, the
average man and woman on the street
will tell Pops Barnes and anybody else
that Jim Wetherington before he leaves
office is clearing a path to make good
on a campaign promise he never owned
up to making to members of the
Caucasian community during the 2006
election. During the 2006 mayoral campaign
it was heavily rumored Jim
Wetherington would fire the City
Manager, which is what many conservatives
wanted along with greater police
numbers. Candidate Wetherington would
always respond to the rumor saying City
Manager Isaiah Hugley would have a
job as long as he did his job. Being
the sly old police chief that he is
Wetherington never once denied the
statement. After nearly four years and
a number of lies later, we know exactly
why Jim Wetherington delivered an
ambiguous reply for the record.
With all the brouhaha over Parks and
Recreation Director Tony Adams and the
rush to judgment against him and others
concerning criminal activity and theft of
taxpayer dollars, I myself had a
interesting question or two concerning
the unilateral power and authority of our
good mayor himself, whom has never
had much problem since being elected
with playing footloose and fancy-free with
the truth or rule breaking as long as it
benefitted him or whomever he favored.
I like to deal with the whole truth and
the known facts in every case. I am
going to do exactly the same in this
case. I will research, report, and opine.
It will be up to accept or reject my
analysis of the situation. I would only
ask that you put passion and prejudice
aside as you decide who or what is
right and who or what is wrong. I don’t
mind you disagreeing with me, but you
can at least be logical and objective in
doing so.
On June 3rd I emailed Assistant City
Attorney Jamie DeLoach and asked two
direct questions pertaining to law or the
Municipal Code of Columbus.
Here are my two direct questions and
her straightforward answers:
1) Specifically, under what current legislation
does the Mayor derive authority
to call for departmental audits conducted
by the Internal Auditor within or without
the Department of Public Safety without
the official vote of Columbus Council to
approve?
City Attorney: The power to request
an audit by the Internal Auditor is
contained in the Columbus Code at
Section 2-68.
2) What current legislation gives the
Mayor/Public Safety Director power and
authority to call for a Columbus Police
Department criminal or non-criminal
investigation of a CCG department that
falls outside the Department of Public
Safety?
City Attorney: The Columbus Charter
contained at 1993 Ga. Laws 4998-5000
gives the Mayor the power to call for
the investigation by the Columbus Police
Department.
What does Section 2-68 of the Columbus
City Charter say?
PART II - CODE OF ORDINANCES
> Chapter 2 Administration> Article
VI-Internal Auditor/Compliance
Officer
Sec. 2-68. - Supervision
and direction.
The internal auditor/compliance officer
shall be subject to the direction of the
mayor and Columbus Council and shall
submit reports concurrently to the mayor
and the Columbus Council. Such
direction shall be by resolutions, written
or oral, which shall include direction to
the internal auditor/compliance officer to
conduct inquiries and investigations and
shall include the purpose and scope of
said inquiries or investigations. The result
of such inquiries or investigations shall
be reported concurrently to the mayor
and the Columbus Council.
(Ord. No. 06-100, § 1, 11-7-06)
Nowhere is it in the Columbus City
Charter or any Columbus Code Section
or in any city ordinance that Mayor Jim
Wetherington has the individual power
and authority to call for an audit of one
department within the Columbus
Consolidated Government, let alone the
24 audits Columbus Council had no
knowledge of until very recently. The
Columbus Consolidated Government
Internal Auditor John Redmond
conducted 24 internal audits on the
orders of Mayor Jim Wetherington alone.
The Columbus Charter in Section 2-68
clearly states the Internal Auditor is
subject to mayor and Columbus Council,
not to either mayor or Columbus City
Council. You will not find mayor or
Columbus Council written in that code
section, which, if it were, would indicate
one could act independently of the other
and order a departmental audit. There
is no hint in the section code that the
mayor has sovereign authority over the
Internal Auditor/Compliance Officer.
Section 2-68 of the Columbus City
Charter further clearly states in the first
sentence that the Auditor shall submit
reports “concurrently to the mayor and
Columbus Council.” There is no division
of mayor and Columbus Council, nor
does it in any way suggest Columbus
Council should be left out of the loop
at any point in time. The logical
conclusion is if the Internal Auditor is
compelled by law to submit audit reports
concurrently to mayor and Columbus
Council, it stands to reason that the
order to audit a certain department came
from the combined authority of mayor
and Columbus City Council not just
mayor alone. Claiming the mayor can
legally act alone in ordering departmental
audits certainly appears to be a very
poor legal interpretation of Columbus
Code Section 2-68.
Even if you are somehow foggy about
whether Mayor Wetherington had the
power and authority to initiate the Parks
and Recreation audit or not, including
the numerous other audits the public
and council are just recently hearing
were conducted, there is no question
or doubt whatsoever that the final audit
reports were mandated by law to be
submitted to the mayor and Columbus
Council concurrently. The Columbus
Charter is very clear on that point. Mayor
Jim Wetherington has been violating the
Columbus City Charter. If he did not
violate it by unilaterally calling for audits,
the law was violated 24 times when the
audit reports were not submitted concurrently
to the proper authorities.
READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE
PICK UP YOUR COPY OF THE COURIER ECO LATINO TODAY! |
