Commissioner Maier asked a question of the city manager--"At the end of the last fiscal year [2014], was the [Beach] Fund in the red or in the black? The answer was "in the black." He didn't have the amount at his finger tips. It was mentioned by Laurel Decker who was seated in the chamber. Both she and John Pickett are members of a special two member beach committee appointed by the city manager. The Finance Director concurred. $471,000.
And this was very positive news as the city continues to tell us that we are not making money at the beach and basically losing our a**es. The number is smaller than what the audit shows but apparently the city screwed up on some numbers as revealed by the city manager on Tuesday night.
Amoroso diminished this positive news by stating the above but once again, there was no mention that we borrowed the money from ourselves, that we have paid back the principal at $250,000 a year, half the rate than we originally anticipated, and we have paid all interest back to ourselves to date.
Talk more about the faulty numbers staff was giving to the commission.
ReplyDeleteIf my left pocket borrows $100 dollars from my right pocket and I agree with myself to pay it back with interest, say 10% at $25 per year, then pay myself $13 the first year and $13 the second year, can I really say that my left pocket is in the black?
ReplyDeleteYes you can because all you have to do is change the terms of the paypack. Now, I can go out and pay cash for a new car and make a promise to pay it back to my savings account over five years. Instead, circumstances may change and I pay it back over ten years. So what? It's my money. I don't owe anyone but myself. It will get paid back and I am even paying the interest. As long as my intent to pay it back doesn't change, then the transaction is intact.
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, as we never see a line item on expenses at the beach, how do we know that everything dumped into that beach fund are legitimate beach expenses? Why can't we get a detailed accounting. I know that at one time we were dumping all toilet paper bought for the beach into the pool accounting. i would like to see the line items and justifications. Years ago we discovered some legal expenses had been dumped into the beach account that had nothing whatsoever to do with the beach.
I can't believe that Bornstein did not have those numbers! If I were a Commissioner there would have been much unhappiness in the room right about then.
ReplyDelete