By Seve Bell
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kcur/local-kcur-613037.mp3
Kansas City, MO – Former Jackson County Executive Katheryn Shields denies allegations from her successor, Mike Sanders that her administration is responsible for a 20 million dollar shortfall. KCUR's Steve Bell reports.
When announcing the need for job cuts and a $20 million loan this week, Sanders said his predecessor left the county with less than $300,000 in reserves. Shields says she believes when the results of an independent audit are released it will show that figure to be more than twelve million dollars.
Shields accused the county executive and legislature of "creating fantasy problems, adding, "Why they're still going on like this presenting figures that just aren't the truth, and that their own audits don't bear out I don't know.
Shields says normally the reserve fund should have been around nineteen-million and would have been if the legislature hadn't approved employee raises totaling seven-and-a-half-million more than she recommended.