APS Stadium, how much will it really cost?

In November of last year, I asked APS Chief Operating Officer Brad Winter for a candid, forthright and honest accounting of the money they spent on their new boardroom at 6400 Uptown Blvd.

We're still waiting.

Even after a public records request and a complaint filed with APS whistle blower program, he is yet to provide that candid, forthright and honest accounting.

According to internal documents, when Winter was asked about the failure to produce the records, he replied;

I am not responsible for public records requests.

The truth, I suspect, is that he has no idea how much money they spent.

I believe there aren't records at all. Either that, or the records point to incompetence and corruption. Why else will they not produce them?

There was an audit done of the APS Finance Division at the time they were spending more than five and half million dollars renovating a building that they had assured taxpayers, would pay for itself.

The auditors found a profound lack of standards, accountability, and record keeping.

One might hope that in the intervening years, their standards and accountability and record keeping have improved.

One might hope.

Dashing that hope, the facts;

• they still haven't produced a candid, forthright and honest accounting of spending at 6400 Uptown Blvd,
• they still oppose any independent audit of their administrative standards of conduct and competence,
• the abject lack of due process for complaints filed against administrators.

Laurence Sterne observed;

“Trust that man in nothing
who has not a conscience in everything.”

If Winter won't tell us the truth about spending at 6400 Uptown Blvd, what makes anyone think he will tell the truth about spending on the new stadium?




photo Mark Bralley