From the City Auditor, Our First List of 2010

By Jim Schutze Mon., Jan. 4 2010 at 12:55 PM

Categories: Schutze

If nothing else, we're pretty sure the city owns Dallas City Hall. Then again, who really knows?

Dallas City Auditor Craig D. Kinton just published his department's audit of maintenance of city-owned buildings, which makes for some mildly amusing reading this morning. It's after the jump, but what would you imagine the biggest problem might be, in terms of gauging how well the city maintains its buildings? The correct answer is: The city doesn't know which buildings it owns.

The first major finding in the audit, in fact, is: "The city does not maintain a current listing of all city-owned buildings."

Not that it doesn't have any list at all. The auditor found that the city has many lists -- all mutually contradictory.

The audit found one building listed that burned down several years ago. But The Bridge -- the city's downtown homeless assistance centered created with great fanfare and expense -- isn't on any list. A tiny nit we might pick with the auditor is that he castigates the city for failing to include "Zaragozia Recreation Center" on its lists. We're sure he means the Ignacio Zaragoza Rec Center, named for the Mexican general who defeated the French on Cinco de Mayo, 1862. Sarah Gozia is a piano soloist in Joplin, Missouri, according to Google. Different.

Anyway, the audit is pretty good reading, especially if you don't have anything especially useful to do with yourself this afternoon." A10-007AuditofMaintenance of City-Owned Buildings - 12-30-2009