City CFO found it hard to give up the draft

Opinion

September 26, 2009

Anonymous The McAlester News-Capital Sat Sep 26, 2009, 06:44 PM CDT

McAlester took a step back in time this week when the city’s new finance guru tried to block public access to an audit record.

The McAlester News-Capital learned during an innocuous interview with the Chief Financial Officer that she was reviewing a city “audit.” We asked for a copy, and boy, did we get an earful.

The CFO, who began work for the city barely a month ago, protested for two days. She fought the request on a number of grounds, in a manner that finally deteriorated to shouting Tuesday night in city council chambers.

Eventually, the press prevailed and the document — albeit a working audit document — was released. It revealed a few troublesome items that may still be ongoing, including problems with how vacation and sick time benefits are recorded, and inventories at the city garage. But probably nothing on the scale we suspected based on the volume of push-back from the CFO. The draft audit appears to have little evidence of the theft and misdeeds that marked the Randy Green era of leadership and have since smeared the perception of goings on at 28 E. Washington Ave.

Still, the vim and vigor that went into the effort to block the draft’s access speaks volumes of at least one office at City Hall and its take on the public’s right to know and transparency in city government.

Gayla Duke, the new CFO, gave us many reasons for withholding the report’s draft. She told us it was unfinished. That the city’s managers hadn’t had time to include their remarks. That the city council hadn’t seen it. She objected on the grounds that the auditor who wrote the draft wasn’t ready to release it. The report was from 2008 data, she noted, and would be finalized in two weeks. Couldn’t we wait until then? She disapproved of the manner in which it was requested. She disapproved of its possible use if it was released. She frowned on the possibility that the public would hear about something before city councilors.

Most are good points. All are probably valid in some context or another. We never argued otherwise, and we still don’t.

The fact is that the draft is a public record. Withholding it from the public is against the law. Period.

Here’s what the state Constitution has to say about public records: “The purpose of this act is to ensure and facilitate the public’s right of access to and review of government records so they may efficiently and intelligently exercise their inherent political power.”

Heady stuff. But it’s a responsibility we take seriously.

We don’t make a practice of requesting documents just for the heck of it. Mostly, the things we ask for are used for background, or research, or to verify information from other sources. Sometimes the documents result in a story, sometimes they don’t.

We recognize — and applaud — the people who volunteer their time on the City Council and its Audit and Finance Committee. Not everyone cares about their community and its future enough to put forth such effort.

We also recognize that, for the most part, the folks at City Hall are good people who work hard and care about what they do. Many have worked hard to re-establish a trusting relationship with the public.

They all deserve better. And so do the citizens of McAlester.

Comments? Send them to letters@mcalesternews.com.

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