Oopsies: City fails to bill restaurants enough for inspections

Apparently nobody except perhaps Lisa Signori was keeping an eye on the budget. You would think that the fall off in a reasonably substantial line item would raise a red flag (there are only a few dozen revenue line items after property taxes and state aid)

On several occasions I have asked city councilors how revenues are performing mid-year (say February or month 8 of the fiscal year) vs. the prior year and vs. the pro forma calendarized budget. Nobody knows. When I ask them if they have access to the information from the budget department I am met with blank stares. The best you can do is get YTD numbers - but they are never compared to the prior year and they are never compared to a calendarized budget until the fiscal year closes in June.

I found one account that had millions in the revenue budget but as of about March had a goose egg next to it. I asked an extremely senior councilor why that was and he said he had no idea but took my email and said he'd get back - he never did. (I found out later the city owns a number of trusts and pulls money out at year end as needed to balance the budget - which is one way they balance a multi-billion dollar budget to a tiny fraction of a percent every year despite annual massive overruns in OT)