(April 5, 2005) -- Dogged by charges from City Auditor candidate Laura Wilson-Doud that he failed to ensure City Hall received Queen Mary rent for an extended period because he hadn't audited rent credits claimed by the QM's operator, City Auditor Gary Burroughs said at a candidate forum that he did have the right to audit QM credits and rents due the city...but said he "did not have the right to audit the detailed books and records" of the Queen Mary.

But the actual contract (1998 lease) verbiage (posted verbatim below) and the position of retired Deputy City Attorney Jim McCabe (who handled Queen Mary related matters at the time) challenge Burroughs' claimed inabilities under the lease.

The Queen Mary rent issue first came to public attention after a LB housewife/taxpayer, Traci Wilson-Kleekamp, examined documents already in City Hall's files (using the state freedom of information law, the CA Public Records Act) and began publicly questioning the status quo via the internet.

The Queen Mary's operator (QSDI under a 1998 amended lease with City Hall) is now seeking bankruptcy protection after city management retained an outside firm, the Staubach Co., which concluded rent was owed, and Burroughs' office subsequently prepared a report acknowledging rent is due. The QM operator denies this conclusion...and the sum at stake is now estimated to have grown to roughly $5 million. City management continues to cite this sum in its budget as revenue balancing the city's Tidelands budget. [If the money isn't ultimately received and nothing else changes, the City budget/Tidelands fund will be out of balance by that amount and taxpayers could be left holding the bag.]

Ms. Wilson-Doud, a CPA and law school graduate, told an April 3 Wrigley area candidate forum, "[T]he reason why the Queen Mary is a bankruptcy is because he [incumbent Burroughs] failed to do his job."

Polished and unflappable on stage, incumbent Burroughs replied calmly, "My office is the only office -- not the City Manager's office, nor any other office in the City of Long Beach -- ever responded to the issue of the Queen Mary. It was only the City Auditor's office that did so."

But when Wilson-Doud continued to press the point, Auditor Burroughs took a more didactic tone:

Still Wilson-Doud persisted. "He does have the authority. Every time a question is raised about his job performance, he blames somebody else. It's either the City Attorney, the City Council or the City Management. Our City Auditor never takes responsibility for the job. He is always blaming someone else for not doing the job."

So what does City Hall's 1998 amended lease with Queen Mary operator QSDI actually say? In the public interest, LBReport.com posts the pertinent portion of the lease below [bracketed material by us]

Asked about the specific lease verbiage the day after the candidate forum by LBReport.com, Auditor Burroughs provided us with a copy of the pertinent lease text (we already had one) and continued to assert that in referring to section 5.4 [which deals with rent calculation] it limits the City to auditing matters regarding rent calculation. Mr. Burroughs also indicated that this view was shared by the City Attorney's office by then-Deputy City Attorney Jim McCabe.

So we contacted now retired Deputy City Attorney McCabe.

Mr. McCabe, who indicated he handled QM-related matters from roughly 1992 to 2004, told us without hesitation, "The contract [lease] gives the Auditor the right to audit the books regarding any issue of the lease, rent or otherwise."

And noting that the rent credits are effectively the central issue, Mr. McCabe added, "I didn't receive any input from his [Burroughs] office as to his wanting more extensive rights."

And Mr. McCabe tagged his statement to us with the following opinion: "I found Mr. Burroughs to be an impediment to doing an audit on the rent credits."

Further as newsworthy.