Conflicting Information regarding Check to County

Further information has been brought to our attention from another city resident who spoke with Interim County Manager Jim Freeman.  Per this city resident, the check Acting City Manager/Vice Mayor Trudy Block attempted to present to the county on Thursday, October 21st, was not for $28,000, but rather $2,800.  Since the check was never accepted by the county, there is a good chance there was some miscommunication regarding the actual amount, especially if no County Official ever saw the check in person.  It sounds like the only source that would know for sure the exact amount of the check would be a representative from the City, and they have been pretty tight lipped on this issue.  If the check was for $2,800, then Ms. Block would not have needed the approval of the entire City Council to initiate the check, since it would be under her $10,000 limit.  The check would have only required her signature, as Vice Mayor, as well as Mayor Joe LaCascia's signature.

How the amount of the check presented to the county was determined has yet to be revealed, as well.  If the check was truly for only $2,800, is this all that the City could afford to pay on a debt totaling over a half a million dollars?  That in itself is a pretty sad state of affairs.  We initially thought the $28,000 amount was low and would have been an insult.  The amount under $3,000 is that much worse.  If the main objective was to try to trick the County into accepting ANY kind of partial payment to void the terms of their demands, then the check could have been written for 1 cent and accomplish the same thing.  Since the City Officials are not being very open and transparent about their dealings with the County lately, even with other Council Members at the City meetings, it leaves this question left unanswered.

We were also informed that the County Officials had an idea that the City would attempt to present the check a second time via overnight mail to be delivered to the County on the deadline of Friday, October 22nd, 2010.  To make sure that there were no misunderstandings about the acceptance of this partial payment check, the County instructed all of it's over 2,000 employees NOT to sign for ANY deliveries on Friday.  The County was very clever to make sure that there will be no signatures of any kind before the deadline expired that might indicate any acceptance of that partial payment.  If there was, there may have been a chance that the attorneys could twist things around and void the previous ultimatum presented to the City for ONLY payment IN FULL.  We applaud the County on their strategy.  How the County proceeds from here we will have to wait and see.