Russ Steele
I heard today on KNCO that Sally Harris is going to run for the Nevada City Council again in June. She is pointing with pride to her certification of the city's housing element and the upgrade of the waste water treatment plant as major accomplishments of the council.
While I agree, it would be a real asset to have a member with some business background on the Council, I have some serious questions about Harris's failure to use that experience in the past.
She has bachelor's and MBA degrees from UC Berkeley, where she studied finance and applied economics. Past positions include finance posts at Intel, Oracle and Macromedia Corp. Most recently, she was The Union finance director.
Harris was on the City Council when is was discovered that the City's financial management was in total disarray. The lack of common financial procedures cost Nevada City a high-profile lawsuit when the city clerk was accused of incompetence when it was discovered $400,000 in fees had gone uncollected envelops of un-deposited check were found in the safe.
The firing of the City Clerk end poorly in a $275,000 settlement, according to human-resources experts.
My question was how did someone with Harris background be totally unaware of the loose financial controls and the total lack of robust control mechanisms in the cities business office. I wrote about the issue back in 2008 in this post: Where Was Sally Harris.
I heard today on KNCO that Sally Harris is going to run for the Nevada City Council again in June. She is pointing with pride to her certification of the city's housing element and the upgrade of the waste water treatment plant as major accomplishments of the council.
While I agree, it would be a real asset to have a member with some business background on the Council, I have some serious questions about Harris's failure to use that experience in the past.
She has bachelor's and MBA degrees from UC Berkeley, where she studied finance and applied economics. Past positions include finance posts at Intel, Oracle and Macromedia Corp. Most recently, she was The Union finance director.
Harris was on the City Council when is was discovered that the City's financial management was in total disarray. The lack of common financial procedures cost Nevada City a high-profile lawsuit when the city clerk was accused of incompetence when it was discovered $400,000 in fees had gone uncollected envelops of un-deposited check were found in the safe.
The firing of the City Clerk end poorly in a $275,000 settlement, according to human-resources experts.
My question was how did someone with Harris background be totally unaware of the loose financial controls and the total lack of robust control mechanisms in the cities business office. I wrote about the issue back in 2008 in this post: Where Was Sally Harris.
