Republican State Auditor David Yost plans to study the finances of Cincinnati's sewer district after it spent hundreds of millions of public dollars with little or no oversight at a time when sewer rates have risen steadily.
Jim Letizia reports.
Hamilton County officials asked for the audit, which Yost says will address concerns about the agency's competitive bidding, contracts and payments. The Cincinnati Enquirer has reported the Metropolitan Sewer District spent 680 million dollars in the decade following a November 2007 memo from a former city manager that eliminated a checks and balances system. The change gave the district and former director Tony Parrott near-total control over decisions related to a 3 billion dollar, court-ordered overhaul of the county sewers. Parrott says the purchasing process had sufficient safeguards and was necessary to keep projects moving quickly to avoid missing court-ordered deadlines. Current city manager Harry Black says he is changing the rules to better control spending.
