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this last year. I 've never seen such scrutiny. And I can' t <br /> see the reason for it . <br /> BETHEA: Well , I . . . <br /> GREENWELL: It shows a lack of faith from the adminis- <br /> tration and the administration should be given a certain <br /> amount of leeway and authority. <br /> BETHEA: Right . Well that ' s what I was trying to get <br /> at. I don' t know whether it ' s a problem that can be handled <br /> by the Charter. But as I read the Charter. . . I still read it <br /> looking at the common-sense meaning of the statute that you <br /> don' t break it down into small items. Certainly, Mr . <br /> Greenwell , as you suggest , one of the things is if the <br /> Council doesn' t have a lot of confidence in the administra- <br /> tion, they could try to (inaudible) it down. <br /> I think the other aspect is , that I suggested the last <br /> meeting, is that with computer availability and computer <br /> capacity for tracking all of these items , that that promotes <br /> this sort of an inquiry. <br /> GREENWELL: Of course, there' s another way to remedy <br /> this and that is to go into a city-manager-type of <br /> government . <br /> MIZUNO: If I might interject , Mr. Bethea. Part of the <br /> problem, I believe, is that it ' s been. . . there ' s been a per- <br /> ception problem on both sides , I think, meaning the legis- <br /> lative and the administration, that each side is trying to <br /> pull one over the other , which certainly is not the case <br /> right now. <br /> Now part of the problem which created this perception <br /> problem, I believe, is in the manner in which we report our <br /> financial status on a monthly basis . And for various <br /> reasons the information that administration has provided <br /> Council , I believe, has been inadequate; and that we are in <br /> the process of changing this . . .a big step in this area would <br /> be for us to present to the Council on a monthly basis what <br /> the original budget was. In other words , what they had <br /> originally improved at the very beginning of the year . <br /> What you present right now is a modified budget . In <br /> other words , any transfers that administration makes , any <br /> ordinances that have approved transfers of. . . I 'm sorry, <br /> appropriated additional revenues , are shown as an adjusted <br /> budget account , without showing the original budget. And so <br /> the perception is we' re changing the budget now, which is <br /> not the fact . It ' s merely that it ' s not shown as a separate <br /> line item, as a separate column. And I think by modifying <br /> our reporting process , it will improve a great deal this <br /> perception problem that we have between administration and <br /> Council . We' re working on it. <br /> 261 <br />