A few knives out for city finance chief
May 9, 2008 at 4:24 pm by Scott Henry in NewsIt’s no fun right now to be Atlanta Chief Financial Officer Janice Davis.
No surprise here, but Davis is high on the list of those being blamed for the fiscal crisis that just prompted Mayor Shirley Franklin to lay off more than 400 city workers and propose a $40 million tax increase.
For her part, Davis has publicly pointed the finger at Atlanta’s longstanding accounting practices; city bureaucrats who don’t follow vending procedures; department heads who overspend their budgets; and her own staff. But, unless we missed something, she has yet to claim responsibility for mistakes that helped derail the city budget – which, in turn, has some Council members feeling less forgiving toward her.
According to City Hall scuttlebutt, there’s a tug-of-war going on now between Council members who want to give Davis the sack and those who believe the city would be in deeper doo-doo if it gets rid of her.
As one nervous Council member puts it: “Janice is one of three people who understands the Mayor’s proposed budget [the others being Chief Operating Officer Greg Giornelli and Franklin herself] and the only one who answers to us. If she leaves, we’re screwed.”
Right now, the ones calling for Davis’ head are a distinct minority. But if one of them were to make an official proposal that she be fired, the other Council members would be forced into the politically awkward position of a public vote a year before city elections.
Voting to keep Davis could be criticized as tolerating incompetence, while canning her could destroy any chance of coming up with a workable solution to the budget problems. Come to think of it, it can’t be much fun being a Council member right now.
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