Gary Free Press

The RDA and the Gary Airport: Bad Checks and Negative Balances

Most government agencies and taxpayer-funded operations are required to go to great lengths to ensure that their finances are all on the up and up. There are supposed to be outside audits done on a regular basis, and in addition, the State Board of Accounts is supposed to go over their books with a fine-toothed comb.

But then we have the murky relationship between the RDA and the Gary/Chicago Airport. One of the biggest factors adding to its murkiness, is that they are both using the same accounting firm to perform their audits. What in the heck were they thinking of? And of all of the accounting firms that they chose to perform the audits of both firms, they chose the firm Curtis Whittaker and Associates! This is the guy that was the accountant for GUEA! This is the guy that was the accountant for Mary Elgin! This is the guy that just got caught with his hand in the cookie jar with the Calumet Township Assessor! And this is the guy that didn’t seem to notice when the RDA paid the Gary Airport $10,000,000.00 twice. And since he was doing the books for both agencies at the same time, he didn’t seem to notice the missing 10-mil from the RDA; and he didn’t notice the extra 10-mil at the Airport. He didn’t notice a thing. Or maybe he did, and just hoped nobody would notice. Hard to say, but the whole reason that agencies employ CPAs is to notice things like this. And if he couldn’t notice 10-million missing at the RDA, and 10-million extra at the Airport, just imagine everything else he likely missed!

There is likely a very good reason that all of these troubled government agencies and political groups choose to use this guy. And the reason is most likely that he knows how to miss things; because if instead these same agencies and political groups used legitimate accounting firms, the party would be over immediately.

And now the RDA is going downstate on bended knees to plead their case. If I were in any decision-making authority, I would tell them to pound sand. The reason the RDA was created in the first place was to provide transparency—and presumably some oversight—to what was going on up here, as the folks downstate didn’t particularly trust our local politicians.

But it sure didn’t take long for this new, supposedly transparent organization known as the RDA to descend into the murky and polluted waters of local politics. What could they have been thinking when they chose Whittaker and Associates as their accounting firm?

*Note: Oh, the extra 10-million that was found at the Airport, Whittaker didn’t find it, a member of the staff found it. And did she get any kind of accolades for this feat? No, she is no longer employed by the Airport. Apparently they weren’t very happy about its discovery.