Columbus, Georgia (WRBL) — The Columbus City Council met Tuesday night to discuss a number of topics. At the top of that list is an ongoing audit of the city's finance department.
Money has been a hot topic at the City Council since August 2023, when the city hired the Atlanta law firm Troutman Pepper to assist with an internal audit. The motion to hire Troutman Pepper was filed by District 7 Rep. Joan Cogul.
The focus of Troutman's investigation was the business and alcoholic beverage license renewal backlog.
At Tuesday night's City Council meeting, Trautman's attorney Charles Peeler addressed the elephant in the room: “Is $45.1 million in city money missing?” Peeler said the investigation found “there is no evidence to support the claim that $45.1 million in lost revenue was lost.”
Peeler also mentioned a number of recommendations for the city, including increased attention to employee retention and training, and increased oversight and enforcement of license delays and delinquencies.
Here is Mayor Skip Henderson's response to these recommendations:
I think the important thing to understand is that these people work hard. Yes, they did, and they didn't use it as an excuse, but there were some extenuating circumstances. I have been infected with the new coronavirus. It produced a great strike. People were leaving their jobs and it was very difficult to identify someone to take over their jobs. Then, the mayor, council and city government as a whole pushed back some of the deadlines in an effort to help citizens. Well, I don't think we realized that while we were pushing it back, they were compressing their time to work.
Skip Henderson, Mayor of Columbus
Troutman's findings show there is a backlog of business and alcoholic beverage licenses dating back to 2016.
Here is the complete list of recommendations:
