The East Ridge City Council has agreed to spend $265,000 on a project - but nobody seems to know what the project is.
At its Thursday night meeting, the council approved the money for what was listed as "Special Project 3" on the city's June financial statement.
But when pressed by mayoral candidate Robert Frye on what the money was specifically for, interim City Manager Eddie Phillips said he couldn't name or describe the project.
"I'm sorry I don't know what this is. I was caught off guard," Phillips said. "I'm not building a house with it or something."
None of the council members nor Mayor Mike Steele offered any explanation for the expenditure.
That lack of knowledge opened the door for resident Mimi Lowery, who criticized the council for not reading the statement and "moving numbers around."
The city already is facing a budget deficit of about $682,000, created when the City Council spent $389,578 in budget surplus funds in October 2009 and the city also suffered a $291,421 shortfall in projected sales tax collections.
At Thursday's meeting, Steele again blamed former City Manager William Whitson for the deficit.
"No money was moved around," Steele said.
"You may not think it was, but the citizens think so," Lowery replied.
Lowery then slammed the council for blaming the six-figure deficit on Whitson and slimmer-than-usual sales tax collections, not the fact that the council spent $389,000 on such items as a marketing campaign for the city, a biodiesel program and raises for all city employees.
At the 2009 meeting in which council members approved spending the budget surplus, Whitson warned them to be careful because the city might not see such good numbers in 2010.
"Did you guys not see we were in a severe economic depression?" Lowery asked Thursday. "Did you all know that was going on? Not just in our city, the United States in general."
"We're not going to do this here, Mimi," Steele said.