TEMPLE, Ga. -- Big-time budget problems have recently caused the small Georgia city of Temple to stop signing checks and even shut down a project for new city buildings.
Nobody who worked for the city was paid for about 20 days in February. Temple's city administrator didn't write a single check. That meant late fees for the city workers struggling to pay their bills and even late fees for the city.
The city is off track because temple is yet to pass a yearly budget for 2014.
Why? In early February, newly elected Mayor Lester Harmon declared the budget that passed in December was invalid.
At the end of February the council passed a 30-day emergency budget so that city employees could get paid what they were owed and start getting a paycheck. But that temporary fix has expired and now the council has passed a second 30-day extension according to Councilman Richard Bracknell.
More dirt from the bad budget deal: a project to build a new city hall and police department was scrapped. But thanks to February's unpaid bills, Bracknell says the project price went up considerably, so the council voted to shelve it.
Bracknell estimates between $300,000 to $400,000 was wasted.
After the mayor declined to speak to 11Alive, reporter Catie Beck caught up to him at home to ask why this technicality in the budget process is taking so long to fix.
Harmon: "What we're trying to do is back things up and do it according to our charter."
Beck: "But you guys wasted between $300,000 and $500,000?"
Harmon: "Not us guys, dear, the previous administration wasted that."
When asked if he could have prevented the stop in pay, Harmon stuck with a similar answer.
Beck: "So you're blaming everything on the previous administration?"
Harmon: "I'm just telling you the facts ma'am."
Beck repeatedly asked why the old budget wasn't just reintroduced correctly and adopted quickly. He pointed to the City Council.
Beck responded, "But you're in control of this, you're the mayor, the buck stops with you."
"If I were in control I could fix stuff, but unfortunately I am only the mayor," Harmon said.
Temple's budget remains in limbo. The earliest a budget could be adopted would be in May.
