City Audits: Fiction and Fact

Here's a headline we'd dearly love to see: "Auditor Praises City Operations; 'Absolutely Flawless,' Review Concludes."

Unfortunately, ongoing scrutiny of Richmond governance continues to find much in need of redress. The latest audit, of the school system's human resources and payroll operations, has produced dismaying but far-from-surprising results: overpayments, poor bookkeeping, goldbricking, and so on.

To be fair, examining city operations and uncovering areas that need improvement is vastly superior to turning a blind eye and pretending everything is swell. Mayor Dwight Jones and the City Council deserve credit for continuing to shine a light into the dusty corners of City Hall.

But they also should remember that simply cataloguing problems is the easy part. Fixing them takes sustained effort. The brass needs to hold city employees accountable. Otherwise, "Auditor Praises City Operations" will remain a headline only in fiction, never in fact.