Some current city leaders -- including Mayor Dan Sullivan and Assembly members Bill Starr and Dan Coffey -- argue that the Assembly did not have the information it should have had from the Begich administration.
Begich, now a U.S. senator, says that's nonsense. Further, he said, a regular year-end, independent audit found his administration's books in order.
Two reports by municipal attorney Dennis Wheeler, which include Begich administration e-mails, concluded the administration didn't shoot straight with the Assembly. Mayor Sullivan says that if someone still working at the city crossed any lines, he wants to know about it.
This business has been political from the start. Republicans Sullivan, Coffey and Starr are political opponents of Begich, a Democrat. The six-member Assembly majority that approved the contracts have generally been allies of Begich. The idea that city politics are nonpartisan is more a wish than a fact.
Now Coffey and Assembly chairman Patrick Flynn have come up with a compromise audit plan. Let's make this audit as cold-eyed, competent and nonpartisan as possible.
If there was any violation of the law, let's find out. If figures were fudged, let's find out. If honest mistakes were made, let's find out.
Sharon Weddleton, Begich's chief financial officer during that time, has said Wheeler failed to understand what he was reviewing. Is that right?
Or did the whole business boil down to differing judgments and opposing politics?
On one side, Begich argued for union contracts he said were good for the city. He said it was wrong for the city to make long-term labor decisions based on temporary market conditions. And he was taking care of city unions that tended to support him.
On the other side, critics of the contracts thought long-term deals with generous terms were foolish in an economic crash and a dicey future, and said later that Begich should have sounded a louder alarm. We agreed with those critics. Politically, those Assembly members tend not to be favored by the unions.
If this audit finds someone did something illegal, then let prosecutors take over. If auditors find problems with access to financial information and how it's presented, the Assembly can fix that by ordinance. Assemblyman Matt Claman already has such an ordinance in the works.
The Coffey-Flynn agreement specifies that this audit is the last round. If it's done well, it should be.
BOTTOM LINE: Let this audit be the end, one way or another.
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