At least one Columbus councilman is calling for a special audit after a $200,000 budgeting error has left the city facing an unexpected fiscal year deficit.

The error has also caused a rift among councilmen about Chief Financial Officer Milton Rawle’s job performance.

City officials are trying to determine how to handle the budget mishap involving a wrongly-anticipated bond payment from the Plantation Pointe retirement community on Windsor Boulevard.

In 1996, the city issued a roughly $4 million bond to Plantation Pointe to help fund infrastructure improvements around the facility. Plantation Pointe repaid the city in increments of about $200,000 for 20 years, the last of which the city received from Tax Assessor/Collector Greg Andrews earlier this year.

In crafting the 2016-17 budget, Rawle included another $200,000 payment from the bond and counted it as revenue, according to Ward 4 Councilman Marty Turner. The balanced budget, approved in September by a 5-0 vote with Ward 2 Councilman Joseph Mickens absent, included $23.26 million in expected revenues and expenditures.

However, Plantation Pointe paid its debt in full when the bond matured in September, meaning the city will likely dip into its general fund balance from last year to cover the $200,000 in income budgeted by the city.

Councilmen broached the issue in executive session during a special-called meeting Monday to apparently discuss Rawle’s job performance, Turner said.

“Milton allowed the council to lie to the people,” Turner said. “We could have taken it out of the general fund. We have $5 million in the general fund. He did some spooky accounting that wasn’t necessary.

“I think we should get an audit,” he later added. “I don’t know why he did it. We need to make sure the books are open to the public and make sure the government is transparent so people trust us again.”

He added the council will request Andrews, whose office has collected the bond payments for the city since 2002, to attend the council’s regular meeting on Nov. 15 to better clarify the issue.

Mickens called Monday’s executive session. Both he and Rawle declined to comment on Tuesday saying it was an ongoing issue.

Mayor Robert Smith declined to comment on record Tuesday, citing the matter as an ongoing issue that was discussed in executive session.

Box backs CFO

Ward 3 Councilman Charlie Box said the mistake made pursuing the money a “moot point,” and the city can make it up, if needed, with sales tax revenue or money from the general fund.

“In essence, what we did was put it in as an entry,” Box said. “It’s not like we put it in our account. It’s just an entry in the budget, and the budget is just a forecast anyway.”

Box said he didn’t view the mistake as a major problem for the city, adding he doesn’t believe Rawle should be punished for it.

“Milton thought that it’d pay off in December,” Box said. “It was an error in posting is what it boils down to. That happens sometimes. But it’s not a big deal, I don’t think. If they (Mickens and Turner) were concerned about it, they should’ve gone to talk to Milton and gotten an answer, but they wanted a special meeting and it’s just, I think, completely uncalled for.

“(Milton) didn’t do anything wrong, and I think they’re trying to make it sound like he did,” Box said. “I’ll battle to the mat with them on this. …He does a great job up there.”

However, Turner said he thinks the matter is a serious issue.

Turner said he and Box normally serve on the budget committee during the city’s budgeting process. However, that didn’t happen this year. Turner lamented the change, saying that he and Box would have caught the issue if they had been more involved in the process.

“That was a mistake,” he said. “I’ll own up to it. I didn’t press the issue. I thought the mayor, (Chief Operations Officer) David Armstrong and Milton Rawle had it.”

Turner: ‘We act like $200 is more than $200,000’

Turner said he’s also appalled by what he sees as the city’s lack of concern over a $200,000 budgeting error, when the council recently changed policy to encourage city officials and employees to turn in receipts for per-diem expenses in a more timely manner.

Smith, at the Nov. 1 meeting, said the policy change — where the city will now reimburse officials and employees for per-diem expenses on trips for city business, rather than fronting the cost — is because two councilmen routinely turn in receipts late after returning from city trips.

Mickens recently turned in receipts for about $200-worth of per-diem costs. Turner still has about $55 worth of receipts to turn in.

“We act like $200 is more than $200,000,” Turner said. “I don’t know where that comes from.”

“Councilman Mickens did not do anything to the city,” Turner said. “If (he) did something wrong to the city, Milton Rawle did something to the city, too.”

Still, Turner said he believes Rawle has, in general, done well for the city. However, he said he’s concerned about the lack of communication to the city on the issue.

“I don’t want anything to happen to Milton,” Turner said. “I think he’s a plus to the city. I really do. But he has to make sure that he reports to more than the mayor. He has to report to the councilmen, because we have to approve these things. If he’s giving misinformation, that’s when I have a problem with Milton.”

Alex Holloway was formerly a reporter with The Dispatch.