Let's blame Dwight (and the sheriff)

The mayor's office issued its response to the hospitality fund audit yesterday. To no one's surprise, the respondent admitted violating state law. We've been saying as much for months, and denying it in the face of the cold facts would have been an act of sheer lunacy, although perhaps not entirely inconceivable for Ragsdale & Co. For good measure the response tossed in a few references to the sheriff's office, a non sequitur in logical terms. 

But the real eye-opener coming out of the response was the revelation of the chief culprit in the hospitality fund fiasco. The cover letter for "management's" response was signed by Dwight Van de Vate, the Chief Administrative Officer! In my opinion, Van de Vate is a likeable, very intelligent individual whose personal circumstances have left him stranded in a snake pit. I'm flabbergasted that he was the author of the illegal hospitality fund. Tsk, tsk, tsk.

But seriously, folks, Dwight is not management. His title carries no more fiscal authority than that which the mayor might delegate to him. Mayor Mike Ragsdale is "management," and Mayor Mike Ragsdale should have signed the cover letter. Fobbing off that basic responsibility on a staff member was plain wrong, and Richard Walls (the internal auditor) would have been justified had he handed the response right back to the mayor with a two-word message scrawled across the front: "Do over."  

Sheesh.