In what has been characterized as a political ploy a full year before what is shaping up to be a heated local election, Sweetwater Mayor Jose M. Diaz — a 12-year commissioner who took over last fall after the previous mayor was arrested on federal public corruption charges — said he has absolutely no idea how much money the city has, even though he now knows that it is stashed away in somewhere between 14 and 19 bank accounts in at least five different banks.
At least as of the last count late Wednesday.
Because Diaz was still finding these surprise accounts hours after a press conference in the morning where he announced that the discovery of 14 different financial accounts and a “lack of transparency in the Finance Department” left him with no other choice than to “shut it down.”
Well, not really shut it down, shut it down. There are still five extremely nervous, anxious people working in the finance department on the second floor at City Hall. Besides answering questions and providing information to the mayor and his political consultant, Sasha “Absentee Ballot Queen” Tirador — who is now the city’s $1-a-year government affairs consultant (yeah, I know, there’s got to be more on that later) — there are still paychecks to issue. Diaz said his — let’s call it a ‘freezing of finances’ — would not touch payroll, senior services or children’s programs (remember, there’s an election going on in the background) until he can get a grip on what the city really has in the bank and in reserves.
“The numbers are totally arbitrary,” he said.
So, for now, Diaz is just going to stop paying some of the city’s bills. He said at the press conference that he was issuing some “stop payment orders.” He told Ladra later that there would be no checks signed until he got all the open pending invoices to review. He is definitely not going to buy any police uniforms or office supplies. But how will city services and programs be affected? What will be the impact on residents? Diaz couldn’t say for sure. He would only say he would not cut payroll, senior services or children’s programs. “All the rest of the operations are going to be stopped,” Diaz said. But if he cuts maintenance in this “financial shut down,” why would he still pay all the maintenance people? To do what, exactly?
Will the trolley be parked in a garage? No sé. Could storm water drainage repairs be delayed? Quizas. We don’t know. Sorta like Diaz doesn’t know where the money is.
The mayor will recommend to the commission on Monday that the city hire an independent forensic auditor to go over the books and the “chaotic system” left behind by former Mayor Manny “Maraña” Maroño, who was arrested last August on bribery charges after he was busted in an FBI kick-back sting. And, based on what the audit finds, Diaz said he may ask the governor to declare a state of emergency, which would automatically trigger an oversight committee and take financial control away from the city administration.
For now, he’s the oversight committee. Diaz has appointed himself the gatekeeper to any money going in or out of the city until the city can figure out where the public’s money is. “We are going to check every account, every item, every ingress and egress in the finance department,” Diaz said at the press conference. It sounds scary. One politician, strong mayor or not, appointing himself the be-all-end-all of where the buck stops. But, incredible as it may seem, that might be the only option the city has, as long as he documents everything (though Ladra sorta expects the FBI to have the whole building wired by now). After all, there’s nobody running the finance department now, since Finance Director Anny Chez was fired two weeks ago along with four other top officials. And the city needs to present a new budget for the next fiscal year soon.
Diaz said he already alerted the proper authorities to these financial shenanigans, but one has to wonder if the FBI — which has been pulling paper at the city for almost a year now — maybe found this on their own. And if not, why not?
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