Well, it had to be gratifying to Mayor Bob Coble to be able to send out this notice, which I just received via e-mail:
I am attaching a copy of the City’s monthly Bank and Investment Reconciliation Statement from Jeff Palen. All City bank accounts and investment accounts are reconciled and current. The current City Financial Statement can be found at http://www.columbiasc.net/finance. Bill Ellis reports that the current budget’s expenses are $6.1 million under budget through March 1st. Thanks
Attached was this PDF of the treasurer’s report.
These last few years of fiscal turmoil threatened to leave a cloud over Mayor Bob’s departure from office. Voters would rightly remember that he and the other six council members had the watch when the city couldn’t close its books, and was so in the fog that it was paying some bills multiple times.
Congratulations to the mayor, the council and acting City Manager Steve Gantt for getting Columbia back to this point. Now it will be up to the new mayor and council to ensure the financial house stays in order going forward.
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So this is what Coble thinks will be his legacy… leaving with the books in order?
“Voters would rightly remember”… needs to be corrected to “Voters will rightly remember”
Forgive my lack of enthusiasm, but I hardly think congratulations are in order for *finally* performing the bare minimum task of getting the city’s finances “in order.” Especially with such a long and frustrating history of clear mismanagement and financial incompetence. Despite the few and meager successes of the last twenty years, this administration’s tenure will be seen as a blighted dark age of boondoggles and fast and loose gambling with taxpayer money, mark my word. If I shoot a machine gun at a paper target and manage to punch a couple of holes, that does not make me a marksman… and I should not get any awards if, after the fifth or sixth attempt, I manage not to kill anyone.
Ps, Mr. Gantt does deserve kudos, if only for leading from below and courage under fire. I do not envy him his task and he has been playing an amazing hand with the cards he’s been dealt.
Steve Gantt is da Bomb.