We need a cage fight, not a PBA audit

At some point, the county commission should just throw PBA top dog Dale Smith and local developer Sandy Loy into a steel cage and let the two go at it.

I'll get to what I'm talking about in a minute.

Earlier this week, I covered the county audit committee, but the big story that came out of it was the release of the Beck Cultural Exchange Center investigation. You can find that right smack here.

Anyhoo, I didn't get around to writing or talking about the Public Building Authority audit. Or proposed one. Or lack thereof. Or whatever.

The commission in July authorized the audit committee to authorize an audit of the PBA and the financial aspects that led to the construction of the $50 million Hardin Valley Academy. (That's a lot of authorizing.)

Sooooo, on Tuesday, the audit people talked briefly about it. The problem that chairman Joe Carcello brought up, however, is that the commission wants the internal auditor to go back six years. That's a ton of work. And a ton of dead trees to go through. I'm pretty sure the commission had no idea what six years entails. A lot of work. And work done by the county's small internal auditing department. But, again – whatever.

I'm rambling here, I know.

But Carcello knows this, too.

“The Hardin Valley one is at least more limited in scope,” he said. “The PBA? This is ambitious.”

In the end, the committee asked auditor Richard Walls to examine the Hardin Valley issue.

Carcell said “if it comes though squeaky clean then I don't know if it's the best use to use the limited resources we have to do a six year audit of the PBA. If it comes back clean, we can say: 'Do you really need an audit of the PBA?'”

Walls said by mid-November, the next time the committee meets, he should almost be done with the investigation.

In the meantime, Carcello also, albeit very, very briefly, talked about the deal between Loy and Smith.

You see, these two do not like each other. For years, Loy has beat Smith over the head in news columns about some supposed mischief that went on in the construction, bidding, building, whatever process of Hardin Valley school.

It culminated awhile back when Smith talked about the issue in front of commissioners and then Loy threatened to sue him for slander.

You can read that bad boy right smack here.

On Tuesday, Carcello asked rhetorically whether the two have ever been in the same room together to hash out the allegations. He talked about how one says one thing; then the following week, the other answers. Or how their attorneys will do the talking.

I say: Screw that!

Either get them in a public forum to debate.

Or get them in the cage.