LARGO - With the idea of an independent internal auditor not even having reached the digestion stage for officials, there is a strong movement underway in Largo for other fundamental changes in city government.
A group of prominent and influential citizens, who prefer to remain anonymous for the time being, is pushing for a system of zero based budgeting for the city and a strong mayor form of government.
The latter would abandon the city manager style which, because of a laundry list of dissatisfactions, has raised a lot of questions as to its effectiveness.
The independent internal auditor idea is now actively being considered by the commission and simultaneously being vigorously fought by Steve Stanton, the city manager.
Stanton was out of town all this week for a three-day conference in Reno, Nevada, but the auditor idea is being explored and gaining understanding in the city.
The position would not be that of a bean counter or checking books (although there have been indications this might be appropriate). An internal auditor would be a watchdog for the City Commission, making sure its policies are being carried out.
Now the city operates under the sole authority of the city manager and the commission is very often in the dark as to what is going on or learns about developments after they have been executed.
With zero based budgeting (ZBB) the approach starts from the premise that no expenditures or activities should factored into plans for the upcoming budget period just because they figured in the current or previous periods.
Every expenditure must be considered and justified solely on the basis of its merits and efficacy.
The idea of ZBB first emerged about 40 years or more ago when dissatisfaction grew with incremental budgeting where budget makers substantially just took the former budget, upgraded it in terms of outlay and let it fly.
ZBB anticipates starting fresh in the new planning period, going over, in detail, every department's plans with a critical eye.
Because taxation offers an unlimited supply of money (demonstrated in the way governments operate; for example, defined benefit pension plans which suck taxpayers dry), government budget makers often get seduced into assuming that budget items are non-discretionary - that is, that they cannot be changed or eliminated.
In meeting after meeting in Largo, citizens with an eye to finances and spending point out, again and again, wasteful city spending or ideas that would ease the burden on taxpayers, but they are ignored.
Because some item or another has been carried in a budget for years with systematic increases every year to support it does not justify its existence under the zero based budget system.
With new ideas coming forth - the independent internal auditor is already on the table to be followed soon by the zero based budget idea and then a charter change for a strong mayor who would be responsible to the people - the political climate in Largo should get very lively over the next few years.
What has triggered the movement by the private group of influential citizens is dissatisfaction with the autocratic workings of the current administration where the elected body has been subsumed into the power of the bureaucracy.