Ocean Shores Councilor John Lynn at last week’s study session: “Last year our General Fund was negative in seven of the 12 months. That means we didn’t have enough cash to do operations without interfund loans . . .” Lynn added something about the state auditors, but I’m not sure what he was trying to say. I will follow up with him, or you may contact him here. (Councilor Lynn has not responded to several of my recent inquiries, such as, “Re your statement at a recent city council meeting, who gave you the information that councilor Ed Engel’s comments on the fire/police being paid too much led to Convention Center cancellations.”)
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Mr. Lynn does not even know the way our cash is managed!! Funds are an accounting tool. All cash is held in three or so checking accounts. The accounting says we have a negative balance in the general fund. The cash in the checking accounts is nearly $10.ooo,ooo.
Reminds me of an old banker I once worked for. His wife was one of those that thought there was an endless supply of money “out there”. When he confronted her about her account being frequently overdrawn her reply was “It is NOT overdrawn! It is simply under deposited, and deposits are your responsibility!”
Just another Lynn-o-babble to try to convince others to continue the trend of overspending and over collecting. He never heard of a taxpayer dollar he didn’t think he could spend better than the owner He has publicly stated in a public budget meeting that the council knows better than the citizens what is best. He didn’t actually say for who. He has lots to learn and never will.
I believe Mr. Lynn is quite confident that he knows how the money is spent and where it is. I have heard that he has spoken at the library board meetings (as liason), and that the money was on target and that the city had $10 million in various accounts.
I have been told that he has his own accounting sheets for the city budget.
I noticed after watching the council meeting on tv for the 1/14/13 council meeting, that after the petition and speaker for the hotels spoke of the poor economy and below average occupancy (for an entire year!), that Mr. Lynn was making comments about the hotels renting rooms for $100. and began discussing how that funding could be utilitzed. I have to admit that I didn’t hear the rest. I was dumbfounded that he hadn’t heard anything that was presented to him from the hotels nor all the people during public comment not wanting the toilet utility fee. This was NOT well thought out. If nothing else, to not just pass something to pass something.
Hotel rooms are going at bargain prices and not any where near $100.00 per night.
The topping on the cake came when, at the same meeting. He wanted surf rescue fully funded. No other location in the state of WA has surf rescue other than through the coast guard. The mayor chose to un-fund that program. She could have taken 2.5% from the departments, but chose eliminating funding for surf rescue. Let’s think about this….Isn’t the lives lost in surf rescue employees of the city on the surf rescue crew?
There has to be alternatives for solving problems.
Physiclal hearing impairedness is one thing, The ability to have a council person listen to you and actually contemplate the words is entirely another problem/issue.
If Mr. Lynn is so knowledable about all these money matters and how/where all the money is located/spent, then why do we still need a finance director? – Just askin…
I don’t know about all of the accounting intricacies, but for a teeny-weeny community they all sure seem to spend a lot of our money for things that we don’t need, i.e. Firehouse, Round-about, ad infinitem! Me thinks those in charge have delusions of grandeur.
John Lynn was elected by default. The citizens put no opponent up to stop him, so now they are stuck with his rob Peter to Pay Paul cash flow accounting, his constant overspending and his praising of himself at his coffee talks for doing this to the detriment of all taxpayers. Reckoning is coming. He can be voted out in November 2014 unless no one runs against him and then he wins again by default to rob Peter to Pay Paul and overspend for another 4 years. So again we have to decide who the enemy is and it looks like it is us for not putting better candidates than John Lynn in those council and mayor seats.