Mayor Cole Stanley/Photo by Noah Dawson
Mayor Cole Stanley has taken to Facebook to express his concerns regarding how the 2016 Prop 1 debt issuance dollars have been spent.
Stanley’s comment follows a discussion of the subject during last week’s council meeting. During the meeting, Interim City Manager Floyd Hartman discussed how much had been spent and how a portion of the money that had been obtained but not spent was being invested. Hartman did recommend that a 3rd-party audit be conducted into the spending.
During a radio interview following the meeting, city staff clarified that none of the money was “missing,” despite reports by some local outlets. Instead, the proposed audit would look into how spending has been managed. “The money’s fully accounted for, it’s been audited already. But, if council would like, they can do an even more thorough audit of the dollars,” said City of Amarillo CFO Laura Storrs.
“We want somebody to also evaluate each of those projects, and kind of the movement as they’ve gone, because some of them are three-year-long projects, two-year-long projects,” added Deputy City Manager Andrew Freeman.
Several days after the interview, the City of Amarillo's Facebook page made a post promoting the interview. In the comments, an Amarillo citizen commented that “the bond issue did not pass so it could sit and earn interest. Fix the roads now!” The commenter then tagged Mayor Stanley, who responded with the following:
I’m not ok with how the monies have not been spent over these last 7 years. I’m not ok that last week I was told that staff doesn’t know if we’re in compliance but on a Facebook post staff now can confirm that we are in compliance.
I’m not ok that I haven’t been given a written legal opinion on this by a tax attorney, which council has requested. I’m not [sic] that it appears staff is now asking council to move quickly on a subject that I’ve been asking for reports on and available funding now for over a year.
This item was requested by Councilman Tipps, but if it had not been, when would staff have brought it to us?
Where was the urgency on these dollars for almost a year now with a council that prioritized infrastructure and roads above all things except public safety.
I find it interesting, and I eagerly await our third party audit to help council be able to move forward appropriately with these monies.
-Mayor Cole Stanley