THERE’S SMOKE, BUT IS THERE FIRE?
City fire officials asked me and a reporter from the Indianapolis Star into their office today to talk about a bounced check. It was for $239.00 to Lowes. It seems odd that a city with a budget of $534 million could ever kite a check. Now granted Indianapolis’ bond rating has been dropped and I knew the city was having financial problems, but I didn’t think things were that bad. The issue had been raised in the blogosphere and it’s rattled some city cages.
Deputy Chief Earnest Malone, who oversees fire prevention, says the staff needed to purchase equipment from Lowes back in November of 2006. He was out of town and so his office assistant wrote the check for the purchase. The check was returned in January for insufficient funds, but Malone did not become aware of it until March 15, 2007. He said the amount due was paid in full on March 19.
When questioned about the account, Malone said it was a “single source” account, not directly controlled by the city, since the source of the funds was donations from State Farm Insurance and not typical taxpayer. He said the account is active mostly between September and October, and they pay very little attention to it again until May.
When asked how often they monitor the account and whether they check monthly statements, Malone said they did not do unless the account was being used. He did not immediately provide monthly balance statements, but he did have a list of receipts for account purchases. He admitted he should have done a better job of monitoring the account.
While on the surface this appears to be a pretty cut and dry story, that is at best embarrassing for the Indianapolis Fire Department, it does raise an important question or two. First, why not immediately produce a list of monthly statements? Receipts only tell us, in part, what the account paid for. It does not tell us about withdrawals authorized or unauthorized or other deposits that would not show up on receipts. Second, if this account was so important, why didn’t the city do a better job of keeping track of how much was in it? I’ll admit Indy is going through some tough financial times, but something like this should have never happened in the first place.
Malone and Public Safety Director Earl Morgan say they are going to set up a 501-c not for profit to take donations to the fund in the future and the account had been closed. Malone strikes me as a good man, but I think he’s falling on the sword for IFD. One thing I can say out of all this is that the meeting I had was the result of a post on an anonymous blog that really must be getting to city. Who knew he, she or they had that much power? But who would have thought a city with a budget in the hundred of millions would bounce a $239 check?
