County auditors to examine Water Authority

[Colonel Sun]

Buffy! I get quoted so rarely! Thank You. If I may be so bold as to respond:

My Opinion: Mark Poloncarz Ignored the Water Authority during his stint as Comptroller (I agree.)
FACT: Mark Poloncarz never audited the Water Authority (I agree.)

My opinion: Shenk will not hurt the hand that appointed him nor upset the brother's job (I'm giving the man a chance. Let's see what he does.)

FACT: Poloncarz hand picked Shenk to EC Comptroller position. (Interesting that you list this as a fact. I dispute this. There was a committee that selected Shenk. Poloncarz was not on that Committee. To my knowledge, none of his people were on the Committee. Do you have any evidence to support your fact?)

My opinion: Too little too late decision to audit ECWA (Once again, let's see the report. Let the facts speak for themselves.)

FACT: It was AFTER the SH 1t hit the fan and AFTER Stefan Mychaliju(sp?) said he would do it. I half expect heat to come off Robb P. As the light is shown on the multitude of other political favorites/appointees. (I'm not so sure of your facts here. I have no idea what Shenk scheduled for audits. Because he doesn't publish his audit targets in advance, you have no idea what he planned to do or when he planned to do it. Do you? If so, please enlighten me. I do know it is accepted practice NOT to publish audit targets in advance. The parties that will be audited can "change their behavior". Read that as alter records or stop doing bad things. As for the "multitude", and this includes Rob P., I will reserve judgment until the report is released.)

Looks like I found a believer in the Colonel (What do I believe again? You seem to have so much inside info. Enlighten me.)...tell me Colonel, why do you think Shenk would even THINK of auditing the ECWA (MONTHS ago MONTHS!!!) before anything was brought to light? (Just a guess, but maybe because it was due. I don't know. I'll ask Shenk the next time I see him. (That's a joke.))

He must be a real maverick, is that what you would have us believe? (I would have you believe nothing. I would hope you would give the man a sporting chance to succeed and an opportunity to prove himself.)

An honest to goodness democrat renegade maverick!?! Hahaha (Wow! What a bitter and cynical posting. I do not tell you that Erie County Government is perfect. It isn't. I will tell you that I will give Shenk an opportunity to show his independence, character and competence. When the report is released, you are free to mock me, if the facts warrant. Be forewarned, I will not mock you if the report is solid. I consider such activity beneath me.)

[buffy]

To tell you the truth, I just don't care anymore.

[buffy]

Edit that to - I just don't want to waste any more energy on this. As far as I'm concerned, politics is an ugly and corrupt business. I'm done wasting my time being concerned- its too frustrating.

[wolfpack]

You can't rely on catching a fish if you only throw your hook in once per year or once per decade

Audit plans based on some assessment of risk are a necessity. Chris Collins said we don't need any auditors and he laid them off (Control Board and next CE brought them back). There needs to be an assessment of what departments and agencies and authorities risks are. It could be because they have scant reporting requirements, or have large revenues, or weak systems, or include less qualified people (advantage of civil service positions and the requirements and tests). In any event there would need to be audits done whether all-inclusive or limited in scope based on potential risks every year or two or three. Another scope of audits might be for processes common to many departments/agencies/authorities such as payables or payroll or bidding. The management changes every few years (collins 4, Giambra 8, Gorski 12 etc.) so it pays to see what changes occured as management changed. The audits need not be witch hunts, but risk based.