Lincoln Mayor Chris Beutler says a proposed yearly audit of the arena project done by State Auditor Mike Foley would be a duplication of work.
State Auditor Mike Foley told KLIN News that when the arena project was on the ballot there was a lot of advertising about how much oversight and transparency there would be and Foley said that he thinks his audit just fulfills on that promise. He said that the need to audit the Joint Public Agency was dramatized by Lincoln’s Antelope Valley Project.
The Mayor told KLIN’s Jack and John, he doesn’t believe the State Legislature intended the State Auditor to impose himself on a community to do an audit that wasn’t requested. Auditor Foley says he has audited other local entites, mentioning Lancaster Manor and the Antelope Valley Project.
Auditor Foley said that the Joint Public Agency board has a member from the university and has members who could end up landing arena contracts.
Mayor Beutler says the board is comprised of a broad spectrum of members from the community. Beutler added that there are different kinds of conflicts of interests out there and they are not all monetary in nature..some of them for example are political in nature. Mayor Beutler questioned how they could assume that Mr. Foley’s office is any more independent of meaningful conflicts then the audit board.
The Mayor said that Lincoln already has two levels of auditing oversight for the arena and an audit by Foley’s office would just be a duplication of work.