Columbus Chief Financial Officer Milton Rawle has been suspended for 16 working days without pay for failure to comply job performance standards.
City councilmen voted 5-1 Tuesday evening to suspend Rawle. It came two weeks after he surprised them with a report showing the city had operated at an $881,000 deficit in Fiscal Year 2018, which ended Sept. 30. The council in its Nov. 20 meeting amended that year’s budget to reflect the deficit — created by a roughly $467,000 revenue shortage and more than $413,000 in excess expenditures.
A source familiar with the situation, who asked not to be named, said councilmen criticized Rawle for not being forthcoming with information about the city’s financial standing sooner, especially when the council approved a Fiscal Year 2019 budget in September based on what they believed to be a balanced 2018 budget.
The 16-working-day suspension will equate to four calendar weeks, since city administration operates on a four-day work week.
Rawle declined to comment after the meeting.
The Dispatch will publish a complete story in Wednesday’s print edition.
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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