Day: February 6, 2016

A few thoughts on last Tuesday night’s Bay City Council meeting

And since I’m well occupied with various and sundry multiple irons on the fire I’ll be as brief as possible:

  1. Ms. Hammond with the Metairie based accounting firm Carr Riggs and Ingram opened her remarks by disclosing the kind of service the firm was hired to perform and that service was an “agreed-upon procedures engagement“. If you follow the link you’ll find the service is pretty reflective of its name; the client provides the assertions that need to be tested and the CPA firm tests those assertions.  Even better is what it isn’t: An audit including, except for very limited circumstances, a “compliance audit”.So what were the agreed upon procedures that Carr Riggs and Ingram was hired to perform?  Easy folks, the US Department of Justice compliance review of the City’s Equitable Sharing Fund spells it out:

    The proceeds received and spent should be included in the City’s annual financial audit as part of the Single Audit. However, certain requirements were inadequately reviewed during prior years’ audits, and the City, as directed by the DOJ, will engage a third-party to independently review and reconcile the DOJ funds equitable sharing account.

    That verbiage is likely why the City Council voted to put the previous auditors professional liability carrier on notice of a claim.

  2. Considering no money had been expended from the Equitable sharing account reviewing and reconciling it was an easy job in taking the year end affidavits and tracing the revenues into the program. The math involves addition along with some rudimentary multiplication and division to calculate interest that should have been but was not credited to the DOJ fund.  So you spend a day on site to make the calculation while Hizzoner blows copious amounts of smoke up the ol’ derriere. The resulting presentation, which was complete with smoke still emanating from Ms. Hammond’s hiney, appeared to be more an exercise in auditioning for the 2016 audit because her remarks went far beyond the scope of her work.  As for the smoke believe you me I know first hand about it because I was literally next to her broadcasting the agreed upon procedures engagement report presentation on Periscope. Proof:
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Other Voices | Wednesdays Wars: After Iowa

Published on Feb 3, 2016

If HILLARY CLINTON is going to be President, she needs the election moved up by six months. Her supporters aren’t getting any younger. In Iowa, Bernie Sanders beat the bejesus out of her with people under 44 and in the under-30 segment, Sanders beat her by six to one. Seriously. The closer people got to Medicare and assisted living, the better Hillary did with them. In Hillary’s favor, it’s clear that she’s had a major upgrade in hairstyling and wardrobe since cashing some of those $200,000 Goldman Sachs speaking fee checks.

BERNIE SANDERS is a revolutionary. He makes no bones about it. He doesn’t speak with the schooled oratorical gestures of a Ted Cruz or the sappy sing-a-long crap of Marco Rubio. He gets up in front of an audience in his rumpled suit and quirky gestures and speaks from the gut about the “disgusting greed” of the ultra-wealthy. He’s a Brooklyn-born Jew with an Irish Catholic wife who delivers a message of social justice far more Christian than the so-called “Christians” on the right who start their rallies with prayers and are most enthusiastic when talking about the death penalty or carpet bombing. As of right now, Bernie is on fire. The question for him is, can he continue to bring the heat and expand the electorate. It’s not out of the question.

DONALD TRUMP is a self-proclaimed “winner” with “unbelievable polls … leading everywhere”. He likes to throw punches and treat his opponents with dismissive contempt. Now that he’s a loser, at least in Iowa, we’ll see if he really wants to be President of the United States. More than anybody in either party, Trump’s campaign has been about the Cult of Personality … Trump as Winner. He’s bleeding now, and that gives a street-fighter like Chris Christie, who has to show well in New Hampshire, an opportunity to see how Mr. Trump reacts when he is the punchee rather than the puncher. Trump has had major setbacks in his business career and overcome them to come back stronger. He was younger then. It’s entirely possible that the air will come out of the Trump presidential balloon in a New York minute.

TED CRUZ is an interesting piece of work. There’s no question that he’s smart. Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz, who knew Cruz when Cruz was in law school, says his mind is top-rate. He’s also good (like a game show host) before a crowd. He can quote Scripture like those fundamentalist preachers that have hairdos that look like bird nests. Plus, he’s crafty … Nixon-class crafty … and a hard worker. Continue Reading………