What you see is not what you get
To the editor:
Councilman Deile was in the hot seat at the council meeting Monday night. That is a place usually reserved for myself or any resident who happens to rub the city manager the wrong way.
It was interesting to watch Councilman Day interrogate Councilman Deile on where the numbers came from, “Average Pay and Benefits for Public Works Employees.” The numbers in question were numbers that Councilman Deile quoted on a radio show last week. Mr. Stewart was quick to say that Mr. Deile should go to staff when he wants to know something.
Councilman Deile aptly pointed out that the numbers came from The Cape Coral Annual Financial Report (CAFR). In fact Deile stated that he put a memo out on March 30 with the same numbers and no one on staff nor did fellow council members comment on those same numbers at that time.
The city manager quickly pointed that the numbers in the CAFR contained charges related to “the buy out.” These numbers were melded into the detail line labeled “salaries wages and employee benefits.”
Councilman Deile quickly shot back that the detail line in question had no foot notes nor did it break out the charges related to “the buy out.” The city manager quickly fired back that the city didn’t know how people would use the numbers and therefore did not add any footnotes.
I hate to inform the city manager but that is the reason for using footnotes in the first place. We had a former city manager who was referred to as “Hide It Howard.” That name, with revision, would be highly appropriate today.
How dare Councilman Bill Deile take some numbers from the city’s comprehensive annual financial report and do a calculation. We all know he should go to city staff if he wants to know something. He should not be thinking for himself. Our elected representatives shouldn’t do this they should just go to staff for all the answers.
As one of our residents would say. There was a new customer in line at The Cape Coral Humble Pie Bakery last night. It was Councilman Deile who left with more than one slice of humble pie.
My congratulations go out to Mr. Stewart and Mr. Mason since they apparently have managed to render the Cape Coral Comprehensive Annual Financial Report completely useless. There must be some kind of accounting award for this or maybe we can start The CPA Hall of Fame (Shame). We could install Mr. Mason as the first member.
What needs to be done is to put a skull and cross bones on the first page of the CAFR or a warning “Use At Your Own Risk, What You See Is Not What You Get.”
John Sullivan
Cape Coral Minutemen