Tribune investigation contradicts Coffey's, Price's Reign of Error; discredits affiliated audit fetishists.

Dwyane Wade’s not the only entity capable of scoring at will.

State doesn’t recommend extra audit; Council to probe finances first, by Eric Scott Campbell (News and Tribune).

An official for the State Board of Accounts, which audits New Albany’s finances each year, said Tuesday he does not recommend the city hire an accounting firm for an independent audit as the City Council voted on Thursday to do.

“We wouldn’t recommend that they get an independent audit because that’s exactly what we do,” said Mike Bozymski, deputy state examiner.

And so it transpired that the Tribune, falsely accused by increasingly desperate local conspiracy theorists of eschewing investigative reporting, did the one thing that eluded the consciousness of 1st District councilman Dan “The Great Reneger” Coffey and his band of morose fabricators: It asked a question, and received an answer.

The newspaper asked the State Board of Accounts, and the State Board of Accounts responded.

Page 40 of the city’s 2004 audit lists nine city funds overdrawn that year, then reads, “The cash balance of any fund may not be reduced below zero. Routinely overdrawn funds could be an indicator of serious financial problems which should be investigated by the governmental unit.”

Asked to elaborate on that language, Bozymski said it meant the council — the “governmental unit” — should examine the city’s financial records itself, along with the controller, Kay Garry.

“I would say the city controller would certainly be involved in any discussions,” Bozymski said. “If they had specific questions they could certainly call upon our office for help.”

Enlisting the aid of ever loyal sycophant and fellow Siamese Councilman Steve Price, CM Coffey was left to root frantically through his spin mode pumpkin patch, scrambling furiously to concoct straw men and suitable back stories to cover his “auditory” tracks.

With the reporter standing by in need of a quote, the Wizard bizarrely chose to divert attention from his own role in fomenting chaos by waxing angelic about the oft-maligned controller Garry:

Coffey, who was with council colleague Steve Price when reached by phone Tuesday, said he thinks the controller is doing a good job: “If Kay Garry wasn’t in there right now, the city would just be a financial mess. I don’t know how she’s able to hold it together.”

Delightful ... but reeking of deception.

Recall that the Siamese Councilmen’s longstanding justification for some undisclosed and undefined variety of outside auditors – trained professionals, as it were, for a duo that despises trained professionals – has been that these interpreters are required to stand between the councilmen and the controller, the obvious insinuation being that as an appointed tool of the municipal regime they detest, she could not be trusted to provide the information that so often eludes their coprehension.

It’s utter hogwash, of course, and in the end probably owes as much to CM Coffey’s thinly veiled streak of misogyny as to his patented unwillingness (or pathological inability) to pursue the sensible course suggested by the State Board of Accounts.

Glorious; simply glorious. The month of June, 2006, will be remembered as a e cherished golden age when the perpetually underachieving councilmen Coffey and Price – the city’s foremost prehistoric obstructionists – commenced a long and glorious free fall, shedding relevance, credibility and electability as they dropped.

But keep your eyes on them, because cornered politicians have been known to theatrically snarl.