Did Deborah Bowie Have Role in Ousting City Auditor?
WUFT 4/19/2019 Gainesville City Commissioners Accept Reichert House Audit Despite Controversy
By Josephine Fuller (Archive)
The Gainesville City Commission approved a motion Thursday night to accept an audit for the Reichert House Youth Academy despite claims that the city auditor might have had a conflict of interest.
Gainesville city auditor Carlos Holt completed the audit of the program’s administration, finances and performance metrics in November, and it was released on April 12. He found a lack of standard business processes, lack of transparency, grants being obtained and managed outside the city’s oversight, inaccurate and inadequate procedures for performance metrics and poorly documented purchase transactions.
(With the audit underway in 2018 we must ask how the decision was made to promote Bowie to interim City manager when County NAACP President Evelyn Foxx said "Bowie would not be the best choice to try to heal divisions in the city." Also, Former city arborist Meg Niederhofer claimed, "the problems the city is facing with neighborhood redevelopment, police dissatisfaction and other issues could be better addressed by Varvel or Park.". It was most notably commissioners David Arreola and Gail Johnson who favored Bowie for interim city manager.
Bowie (aka Bowie) was fired from her job as in 2009 as Chief of staff by Interim Birmingham Mayor Carole Smitherman when she failed to report a $20 million dollar shortfall in the City's budget under then Mayor, Larry Langford. Bowie's history of willing association with financial crimes and coverups could have played a factor in the Commission's decision to reject less controversial candidates.
Birmingham Mayor, Larry Langford Sentence to 15 Years in Prison: (Archive)
Langford was convicted in October (2011) on 60 felony charges of bribery and conspiracy that took place while he was president of the Jefferson County Commission. Prosecutors said Langford sent more than $7 million in county bond business to Bill Blount's investment banking firm. Langford, in turn, received $235,000 in cash, jewelry and clothing from Blount via Alabama Democratic lobbyist Al LaPierre. Prosecutors said most of the financial business Langford funneled to Blount involved bond and swap transactions related to Jefferson County's multi-billion dollar sewer debt.
Bowie was at the center of an international scandal headlined by Business Insider as " The Incredible Story Of The Jefferson County Bankruptcy -- One Of The Greatest Financial Ripoffs Of All Time" (Archive)
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Interim city manager Deborah Bowie requested that the audit be reviewed and completed by a third party due to multiple interactions between Holt and the Gainesville Police Department over the last few months.
Chief Tony Jones co-founded Reichert House in 1987. Bowie said this presented a conflict of interest.
GPD was called to Holt’s home three times, once in 2015 and twice last year, for issues regarding himself and his family. Holt was never charged, but incident reports show that there was a domestic disturbance, a Department of Children and Families investigation regarding Holt’s son and a call related to domestic simple battery.
Bowie requested that the city hire an external auditor to review Holt’s audit, which the city agreed to do. This disputes the headline that the City Commission accepted Holt's RH audit.
During the meeting, Bowie said that the audit showed no evidence of wrongdoing, but did alert the city to process and performance measures that will require further attention. This was part A of a two-part audit. These findings will be more thoroughly examined in part B of the audit.
“I have to tell you, in my professional experience, I’ve never been through an audit program like this,” Bowie said.
For 30 minutes, citizens made public comments, largely in favor of Bowie’s suggestion that the city use a third party to review the audit and ask for Holt’s dismissal. The appearance of a very vocal pro-Reichert audience appears to be politically orchestrated.
Commissioner Gigi Simmons said that while she supported the motion, the findings were a clear indication that changes must be made in the program.
“I want to be very clear; we need to straighten up. Our children depend on it,” she said.
The commission voted 4-2 to move forward with Holt’s audit, with Harvey Ward and Adrian Hayes-Santos voting against. Both commissioners said they thought Holt’s audit should be rejected completely.
“It’s disturbing that what you have here is not a true fact,” Hayes-Santos said to Holt during the meeting.
During public comment Reichert House executive director John Alexander told the board that the findings and controversy deeply affected him, and that he was ready to do whatever necessary to fix the issue.
“We are ready to make Gainesville proud again.”