This was no accounting error. Either Orr misused Bloomberg funds or she failed to do her job properly.

BY D. REED ECKHARDT

            Mayor Marian Orr has some explaining to do.

            Yes, she has admitted that some $56,571 in funds given to the city by Bloomberg Philanthropies for Orr’s Fight the Blight campaign were either misused or not used and will be returned – some

The $100,000 grant from Bloomberg was announced in February.

of it from the mayor’s own discretionary funds. That is necessary because Orr either purposely misused the money or was so ignorant about how grants funds worked that she thought they could be used for anything rather than for the purpose for which they were intended.

Unfortunately, rather than simply admitting that she made an error, promising to do better in the future and making the funds whole, she has chosen to blame the whole affair “an accounting error.” And she is tossing City Treasurer Robin Lockman under the bus, letting Lockman take the blame for a “coding error” that led to this unfortunate mess.

So it is with the arrogance that continues to mark the Orr administration. Whether it is violating city purchasing rules by accepting a gift from a potential city supplier, telling unhappy residents to “go kick rocks” or ginning up a phony “emergency” over potholes, Orr simply goes her own way and to hell with everyone else. 

A real leader doesn’t make others take the fall for her. Rather, she steps up and acknowledges that the buck stops at her desk and takes personal responsibility to make things right. That is not Marian Orr.

Consider where City Hall would be today if City Council President Rocky Case had not stepped to question why these funds had been used to pay for bar tabs, top-flight hotel rooms, plane tickets to Hawaii, a pricey book on public dysfunction (the irony there is obvious) and office furniture, among other things. Would Orr ever have admitted her fault in this matter? Would the public ever have known that its mayor had misused funds, either our of ignorance or from personal corruption? Would Cheyenne ever have been approved again for grants funding from nonprofits once this “mis-coded” accounting error been reported to Bloomberg?

Orr is complaining that Case should have approached her about this abuse of funds first. Why? Her previous arrogance toward the City Council – and toward the general public – gave no indication that she would have welcomed Case’s concerns much less have been responsive to them. And would she then have tried to hide her missteps after she found out her actions had been revealed? It’s doubtful Case would have accepted that approach, but it is equally doubtful that the arrogant Orr would not have at least proposed it.

The mayor certainly is hoping that this revelation of a “coding error” will somehow let this story to die a quiet death. But that is not where this all should end.

At a minimum, Orr owes public apologies both to the people of Cheyenne and to Bloomberg for this affair. 

The reason for the apology to Bloomberg is obvious. She admits that she knew from Day One that the $100,000 grant would not be enough money for her to execute her plans of setting up a website designed to help promote downtown development. Instead, she finagled a couple of events then let the rest of the money fall into misuse. Better that she simply had returned the check with a hearty thank you. Instead, the funding was abused, and that deserves a mea culpa to the foundation from the mayor.

But she also owes the people of Cheyenne an apology since it is their city that now has garnered negative national attention for this escapade. Orr can apologize to the people for purposely using the funds for her own ends. Or she can apologize for failing to do her job, to not learn how grants work and then make certain these funds were used in that manner. Either way, this is her mess and her mess alone; it has nothing to do with the City Treasurer’s Office.

It is our understanding that a protest is being planned for next weekend to speak out against Orr and her civic arrogance. Unfortunately, it is being set up by a group from the far right, politically, and the turnout will be minimal since no one really wants to be identified with the local lunatic fringe. 

And Ms. Orr will, no doubt, dismiss this group with the same attitude that she displayed to the hundreds who spoke out against her efforts to terminate the city’s beloved Superday. She may not say it aloud this time, but she no doubt will be thinking that they can go “kick rocks” as well.

In recent weeks, the City Council has taken steps toward reining in mayoral arrogance. It refusal to go along with the pothole “emergency” was a major step forward. Now this effort by its president to monitor how grants funds are used is another message that Orr’s performance is being properly monitored. Good for the council; someone has to do it.

It would be nice to think that this incident will cause Orr to moderate her “do as I say” approach to city government. But please, don’t hold your breath waiting for that to happen.

D. Reed Eckhardt is the former executive editor of the Wyoming Tribune Eagle.