Another View From a Pew…City Finance Director Angelica Alexander’s Presentation Leaves Councilors Looking Dumb As a Box of Rocks

You could tell by their posture the city councilors who were prepared to attack the “executive summary” requested by them of City Manager Isaiah Hugley. Hugley’s opening remarks were clear.

“Please note that this Executive Summary is not in response to the audit/investigation by Troutman and Pepper. As City Manager, I have not been included in any way in the audit/investigation by Troutman and Pepper. I have not been interviewed, consulted, no entrance interview, no exit interview, no public or private discussions.”

He then went on to briefly discuss the business license process as a function of the Revenue Division, the immediate action steps the department has taken, and overall observations how COVID has impacted the city.

And then he turned it over to the City Finance Director, Angelica Alexander.

Her power point presentation was thorough, inclusive, revealing and informative.

Here are my observations of the meeting some interesting, some troubling.

1. Why has Isaiah Hugley not been included in the audit/investigation of the Finance department by the law firm of Troutman and Pepper? According to the city Charter that Councilors Glen Davis and JoAnne Cogle have so adamantly insisted be followed without question as Davis claimed last week, “The City Manager’s office is responsible for planning, directing and supervising the activities of all City employees. It develops, implements and administers policies of the City, manages and controls functions of City departments and performs duties and functions relative to a wide range of City programs and functions. He should have been the first person interviewed.

2. Glen Davis attempted to back pedal his comments from the previous week stating that there weren’t any fingers being pointed at any staff member. However, if you review the 10-24-23 city council meeting you will see at the 1:12:31 mark that he did point fingers implying that somebody made a decision to send out delinquency notices and that they should not have. As he continued, he appeared again to contradict himself from his comments at the last meeting stating that “it is very inappropriate to start giving reports when we have already initiated an audit. That would be out of the standard of procedures and processes.” What is interesting about these comments is that is exactly what councilor Tyson Begly tried to tell him at the last meeting, instead of asking the City Manager to provide an “executive summary” council should wait until the auditors presented their findings, Davis refused to listen to him.
3. Councilor Thomas tried to challenge the City Manager insinuating that he was not being forthcoming when the power point stated that he was denied the opportunity on 8/22/23 to update the council on the business license issue. She insisted that because she couldn’t find it in the minutes it wasn’t true. The mayor clearly stated numerous times that it wasn’t in the minutes because six of the councilors didn’t want the City Manager to give an update. In fact, the City Manager wanted to give the members of council an update during an executive session but according to the City Attorney one of the councilors speaking for six of the others said they didn’t want to hear from him. It was interesting during this exchange that the councilor in question, who was instrumental in denying the City Manager, Glen Davis remained silent. Had he spoken up maybe the expression on her face would have changed.

Two final observations. It was noteworthy that councilor JoAnne Cogle remained silent during the entire process being she was the one obviously elected to bring this action forward at the last meeting.  It makes sense given how miserably she failed in her attempt to answer Councilor Bruce Huff’s question last week. Maybe next time Councilor Davis should write down what she should say.

It was obvious to me at the conclusion of the presentation that two things were crystal clear one; Councilors Davis, Crabb and Cogle need to call those 2-3 constituents and tell them they need to pay their business license fee like the other 6791 business owners did.

Finally, a special appreciation goes out to Councilor’s Bruce Huff, Jerry “Pops” Barnes, Gary Allen and Tyson Begly for realizing that this action was a waste of time and eventually taxpayers’ money. At least you didn’t end up looking as dumb as a box of rocks.