Watchdog?
Election year Blogger and Fiscal Watchdog Rodney Elliot is singing his own praises and using articles that appeared in the Lowell Sun during this Election Season to show he really is the Fiscal Watchdog..notice all dates are in the last few weeks…during an election season that has many good candidates..Rodney hung onto 9th by 210 votes in the last race that didn’t have this many solid candidates.
He would like you to PLEASE Pay NO attention to the Mess in the City Clerk’s office (so what that is was under the Supervision of the City Council and Rodney has served for the past 13 years, he can’t watch everything). He did make a motion in Sept of this year – calling for the audit of all departments in the city that accept cash, he said he made the request because of lax and improper accounting policies identified over the summer in the City Clerk’s Office. Guess he just forgot he was one of the people who was supposed to be watching that office per the City Charter.
Just ignore the fact he admitted in regards to the Treasurer’s Office not being able to balance the books that ” The Treasurer’s cash book has not been properly reconciled possibly going back to 1999″ (Rodney was elected in 1998) and the City Manager has only been here for the last 6 years so he can’y blame this administration but he sure does try! He recently stated ” the reconciliation issues are embarrassing for the city and should have been addressed sooner because the city has known about them for years.
He’s correct and yet he has done nothing about over the many years he has been on the council, great Watchdog.
One of the Items he seems to be taking credit for on his Blog post is a Councilor Patrick Murphy Motion. In his latest BLOG Post he has this listed from the Sun on Oct 17th.
Lowell Sun 10/17/11
City banks on proposal to boost biz
Plan would use local financial institutions more if they vow to lend to companies in Lowell
City Councilor Rodney Elliott referred the program to the finance subcommittee, which he chairs, for discussion. Elliott said he does not understand why the city is not depositing more of its money in local banks, and intends to ask city officials about Lowell’s investment policy.
The Motion by Councilor Patrick Murphy was actually made a week earlier and the Manager responded on the 17th which is when Rodney hijacked it for his committee:
CITY COUNCIL MOTION RESPONSES
1. UPDATE TO COUNCIL MOTION OF 01/11/11 BY COUNCILOR MURPHY “REQUEST THE MANAGER/CFO PROVIDE THE COUNCIL WITH ANNUAL REPORT REFERENCED IN CITY INVESTMENT POLICY & ANALYSIS OF POTENTIAL PERCENTAGE PREFERENCE FOR LOCAL BANKS ETC.”
Tom Moses, CFO provides a report as an update to Councilor Murphy’s motion to develop a local banking
program regarding local banking preference and our investment policy. This program, called the Lowell
Economic Advancement Program or LEAP is patterned after a similar initiative launched by Massachusetts State Treasurer Grossman. LEAP carves out money from the City’s cash portfolio for potential investment in local banks
Has a matter of fact it was also Councilor Murphy who successfully in his FIRST term got the adoption of performance based budgeting passed along with the implementing a variant of CitiStat model in Lowell which has helped to identify budget savings.
Where has the fiscal watchdog been for the past 13 years regarding the Clerk and Treasure’s oversight and where has he been in getting a performance based budget passed?
With regards to the Treasurers Office, isn’t it a fact that there is an audit done every year? Then will someone tell me, the taxpayer, how there is $500,000 not balanced since 1999? Where has everyone been? Sleeping? This City Council has been sleeping for just as longwith regards to the Clerks Office and are so eager to put the blame on everyone else for not doing their job. For shame. Vote them all out and start over. Maybe we will get lucky and get Councillors who truly do their jobs and care about the taxpayers. It’s doubtful, but on can only hope.
Jay,
I have this clip from City Life of Bill Martin explaining that “$500,000.”
You’ll get 2 new councilors for sure.
These are just quotes from the newspaper. I don’t see anywhere on the blog post you’re referring to that he says it was his motion. It just says that he has a voting record regarding taxes and finances. Councilors do speak on issues other than the issues they file motions on. I really don’t find this as outlandish as you’re portraying it to be.
What’s the point of a candidate having a website if they’re not going to say what they’ve done? I’ve looked a few of the candidates websites including Joe Mendonca’s facebook page and John MacDonald and they seem to all do this. They tout what they’ve done or plan to do. It seems really odd that you would question why a candidate is writing about themselves on their own website. Would you expect them to write about other candidates or on other websites?
I looked back through your blog and noticed how many times you’ve posted about this one councilor. And it’s many, many, times. It’s clear to me that you have a personal issue with him. But in this case I think you’ve overreached.
With the claim (fiscal watchdog) goes the pain (unbalanced books, and more importantly draw-down of reserves so the CIty is paying a higher interest rate on all the bonds it has taken out in the past several years).
If he doesn’t understand why the City is not depositing more of its money in local banks, why did he wait all these years until a freshman councilor picked up the ball and ran with it.
I agree with you, Joe. It is political pandering at its worst! Does Elliott really think voters can’t see it??? He slams the current council, yet he’s been part of it since 1998. He won’t be getting my vote.