Mayor Orr Releases Statement On Bloomberg Money
Cheyenne Mayor Marian Orr has released a statement on how money from the Bloomberg Philanthropies was spent.
The city was awarded $100,000 in 2018 through the Bloomberg "Mayor's Challenge" program. Cheyenne City Council President Rocky Case has questioned how the city spent some of that money, including items such as bar tabs and 20 GoPro cameras.
The mayor issued the following statement on Friday afternoon:
"The Mayor’s office has been honored and privileged to be part of the Mayor’s Challenge Grant provided through Bloomberg Philanthropies. Questions have been raised about expenditures charged against the grant in the City’s accounting system. Several days ago, I instructed my staff to assemble all of the data and receipts associated with those charges and develop a full accounting.
Some explanation of this accounting is in order to make certain the provided information is fully understood.
The City uses a software program for accounting. The Challenge Grant funds were deposited in that system to a revenue account. As charges related to the Challenge grant were received, they were coded to the Challenge grant funds within the City’s discretionary account. Unfortunately, many charges that should have been charged to other departments were incorrectly charged against the Challenge Grant funds, many of them being incurred after August 2018. An accounting entry error occurred and that error has now been corrected.
The result of these efforts is that the City’s accounting, and the attached accounting, now show the charges coded to the Challenge Grant in furtherance of the City’s work to test and refine its idea for matching property owners with entrepreneurs to spur downtown redevelopment. All unused funds from the Grant will be returned to Bloomberg Philanthropies."
You can see the accounting statement issued by the mayor's office here.
We'll hear from Rocky Case and get his reaction to the mayor's statement on the ''Weekend in Wyoming" radio program on KGAB--AM at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Oct.19.