Editor’s note: The following letter, written by Columbus mayor Robert Smith on city letterhead and addressed to former Dispatch publisher Birney Imes III, was delivered to The Dispatch and area media today. It was also posted on the city’s online accounts.
Dear Birney:
I hate that it has come to this, but I feel I have no other reasonable choice. I don’t know if it was pure negligence or willfulness of your report staff, but the Dispatch continues to report the City of Columbus as being $40M in debt. The facts are that the City has gone from being approximately $51M in debt to approximately $32M in debt. Your reporting that the City is $40,000,000 in debt is really libelous. Thus, on behalf of the citizens, who have been grossly misled, myself and the other incumbents, and the City itself, I demand that you cease and desist from making such an exaggerated report again. Further, since that false report has been again pushed out in yesterday’s “Our View” and in light of the upcoming election on June 8, I demand that your paper give prominent notice immediately but not later than in Sunday’s Dispatch that your paper has exaggerated by nearly 25% what the debt of Columbus is, while suggesting that Starkville’s debt situation is better, when it has more debt than we do.
I await your prompt cooperation.
Robert E. Smith Sr.
Publisher Peter Imes responds:
Robert,
For more than two years, our newsroom has attempted multiple times to meet with you and CFO Deliah Vaughn to discuss city debt levels. At least three times, you made appointments to meet reporters to discuss this topic and canceled. Our attempts to reach out to the CFO directly went unanswered. As a result, in February 2020 we filed an open records request for details on FY 2018 and FY 2019 debt levels. CFO Deliah Vaughn responded to our request saying it would cost us $72.37 for those records, which we paid. Through those documents and the city’s sporadically-filed audit reports, we have pieced together a picture of city debt. Additionally, during the June 2, 2020 city council meeting, while councilmen discussed issuing another $6.5 million in debt, Vaughn stated city debt totaled $36.4 million. As you know, councilmen eventually voted to issue that $6.5 million in additional debt. The numbers we cite in our reporting come from official documents or directly from your CFO.
We have reported on the debt levels revealed in those documents multiple times, and at no point has anyone claimed the numbers are not correct. That you would make these claims – especially so publicly – only on the eve of the general election reeks of last minute political maneuverings.
As always, The Dispatch remains committed to reporting the news accurately. Please forward official documents supporting the debt levels you cite, and we will report on them. I trust you or the city CFO will be available to discuss the documents you forward.
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