COLUMBUS, Ga. ( WRBL ) — The Columbus City Council met Tuesday evening to discuss a number of topics. At the top of their list: an ongoing audit into the city’s finance department.
Money has been a hot topic in the city council chambers since August of 2023, leading the council to hire Troutman Pepper, an Atlanta law firm, that assisted with the internal audit. The motion to call for the hiring of Troutman Pepper was made by District 7 Councilor Joanne Cogle.
The focus of Troutman’s investigation was the backlog of business and alcoholic beverage license renewals.
During Tuesday night’s council meeting, Troutman attorney, Charles Peeler, addressed the elephant in the room: is $45.1 million of city money unaccounted for? Peeler says per their investigation, “there is no evidence to support the claim that there is $45.1 million of revenue missing.”
Peeler also addressed a number of recommendations for the city including, increase attention to employee retention and training and increase the monitoring and enforcement of late and delinquent licenses.