At a recent City Council meeting, councilors were asked for an additional $250,000 loan to help the Colisee through some rough times. After some discussion, Councilor Renee Bernier asked to see the books prior to voting on the request and was told by the city administrator that she couldn’t see them because the city did not own the Colisee and, therefore, did not have access to the books.

Did I miss something?

Our taxpayer money (over $4 million) purchased the Colisee and yet our elected officials are not allowed to see how our investment is doing? Doesn’t our charter state that we have a city council government where individuals are duly elected to oversee the operations of our great city and staff hired to help run the daily operations and report back to the council? Obviously, the city councilors aren’t doing their job when they not only accept such an explanation, but vote to allocate more money blindly.

Why is staff not providing the council with much-needed information and hustling everything by them? Why is the council not pressuring the staff for all pertinent information necessary to make an informed, well-thought-through decision? City staff is answerable to the council; not vice versa. No wonder councilors are confused about what they are voting on these days.

It’s sad that our local newspaper chose to omit any mention of the additional monies in subsequent articles. Even sadder that we keep dumping money into a white elephant similar to the Bates Mill.

Jacqueline P. Smith, Lewiston
Editor’s note: According to Lewiston City Administrator Jim Bennett, the city purchased the Colisee and turned over administration of the facility to a quasi-municipal entity which, in turn, leases the building to a private limited liability company that is not subject to Maine’s Freedom of Access Act. However, after Councilor Bernier asked to see the Colisee budget, the LLC did provide a copy of its profit and loss statement, July through December 2005, to Bennett and the City Council. That document is available to the public at City Hall. Bennett was unsure whether the company would continue to disclose this summary as a public record beyond this initial distribution.