Fiscal Watch Watch...

It appears the City is inching closer and closer to hearing the death knell for Fiscal Watch and kicking out the state…sorry, we mean, bidding a fond farewell to the state auditors. As we all know, the Auditor of State has been providing Norwood free technical services these last 2½ years, not the least of which was the voluminous Performance Audit.

At last month's 5/22/07 council meeting, AOS officials Dave Thompson and Anna Mary Thomas gave a presentation centered around their examination of City Auditor Donnie Jones‘ 2007 forecast. Thanks in large part to developer Jeff Anderson’s $3.5 million grant payoff to the City, the forecast shows a positive cash balance, obviously essential to having the Fiscal Watch designation lifted.

According to our AOS source, the state needs only two more documents from the City before our collective financial nightmare is over : 1.) Auditor Jones must submit a 2006 GAP (General Accepted Principles) report to the AOS, and then 2.) the City must formally request an analysis. With regard to the former, Mr. Thompson told council that as of a month ago, Mr. Jones was looking at how he would accomplish the GAP report, and our source told us a representative from Mr. Jones’ office met recently with an AOS official to discuss the matter.

As we understand it, there’s no need for the City to request an analysis until Mr. Jones submits the 2006 GAP report. We certainly hope he's burning a little midnight oil if that’s what it takes to get the job done.