Editorial: No comment again

Our reporter Tom Cullen called city and county representatives late last week to see if they sat down for constructive talks on how to find millions of dollars in missing tax increment financing revenues. Of course, “No comment” was the pat answer. They won’t even tell us if they’re talking to each other about how they mislaid our money.

It could be a good sign. How could we know?

A brief recap: Buena Vista County Supervisor Kathy Croker suggested that city and county officials should have an open dialogue about how to resolve at least $5 million in tax revenues that are owed to Storm Lake but were sent to the wrong accounts by the county. That sounded like a good idea since the city is barreling toward a lawsuit against the county, in effect the citizens of Storm Lake suing themselves. An attorney for the city responded in an open letter to the county to engage in talks. The county did not reply publicly.

As this is written, the city has not filed a lawsuit seeking recovery of the TIF funds. A lawsuit acknowledges failure of city and county officials to do the basic business of politics: to communicate with each other and the voters who elected them.

It’s a huge waste of resources. This is why people lose confidence in government. We deserve a full explanation of how this happened. There should be a fair settlement. Maybe they’re talking but local officials are so full of their position that they forgot who they are supposed to be serving.