Dirty Politics, Criminal actions, or Poor Accounting?

Today's New Haven Register article, entitled W. Haven left city deep in red contains the best coverage of last evening's city counsil session with Checkers that I've seen to date, as well as detailing the skepticism that many people feel about the audit.

I liked the well stated summary which leads off the article:

The administration of former Mayor H. Richard Borer Jr. kept the city tax rate artificially low by using grants intended to finance capital projects for day-to-day city expenses and by using accounting techniques that will hurt the city’s finances until at least 2025, according to a forensic audit revealed Thursday.

and the many accurate quotes from Keith Murray, the Checkers director of investigations and general counsel who was the primary speaker at the meeting.

As well as the accurate coverage of the meeting, there is equal coverage devoted to a rebuttal by former Mayor Borer and his legal counsel, Paul J. Dorsi. While Borer did not attend the meeting, he was given a copy of the report on Thursday, and pointed out that:

the audit "is silent" on any proof of fraud or corruption.

and went on to say that he will defend and stand by his actions while in office, that he has done no wrongdoing, but instead acted appropriately with the information he had at the time. It is clear that he feels that this is a political vendetta, aimed directly at him.

Attorney Paul Dorsi disputes the findings of the entire report, and came up with the memorable quote:

"They (Checkers’ investigative team) draw a lot of inferences without any proof," he said. "Figures don’t lie, but liars figure, and Mayor Picard and the guys and gals at Checkers have been doing a lot of figuring lately."

A main bone of contention for Dorsi is the fact that no one has explained WHY the items that Checkers has claimed is improperly classified as Capital Plan expeditures are improper -- and that's an important distinction.

Next up is Mayor Picard's meeting today with the state Office of Policy and Management, where he will share the findings of the Checkers report. According to the spokesperson for OPM, if illegal activities are found, that the city would be advised to contact the authorities.... stay tuned.