County Audit Exposes MEDCO Flaws

The Capital yesterday reported about the County's audit of construction on the Compass Pointe Golf project, and the results seem rather unsurprising. A lack of a paper trail, incomplete records, a lack of checks and balances; all the things that one would expect from a government agency trying to compete as a public business after Senator Jimeno led the effort to expand MEDCO's role.

The story notes that members of the County Council wonder if assuming responsibility for Compass Pointe from the state would have been economically responsible if they knew all of the facts beforehand. It is a fair argument, however, not the most important argument in this case. The question clearly should be asking why the General Assembly allowed the MEDCO change in the first place? Why was a state agency allowed to compete with private business, particularly something like a gold course development project?

The responsible thing for legislative leaders to learn from this audit is that allowing MEDCO to continue in its current role is bad for taxpayers. I hope legislative leaders actually do something about this, and introduce legislation to repeal Senator Jimeno's boondoggle.