Well, the mayor’s spokesman, Fred Sainz, called back. He said he was right and that the sentence in the fresh new Comprehensive Annual Financial Report that discloses that the mayor declared a Stage 1 water watch was just “a drafting error.”
“The department director has never recommended that the mayor declare a Stage 1 water alert and the mayor never declared a Stage 1 alert,” Sainz said.
So what does this mean for the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report? After all, “errors” in past ones have crippled the city for years and brought on the wrath of regulators.
Sainz pointed out that the misstatement occurs in the transmittal letter signed by Mayor Jerry Sanders, Chief Operating Officer Jay Goldstone and Comptroller Greg Levin. The transmittal letter, he said, is not audited and can be easily changed.
That’s a pretty stark fact to just accidentally make up and then insert in such an important document.