I've got you Jayne

Back in July, Auditor Jayne Ferrero saw that the city's budget was in trouble, and she offered a solution. She wanted city council to consider putting a police and fire levy on the November ballot.

"We need to be looking at revenue streams" (Auditor Jayne Ferrero, The Independent, July 13, 2010).

Who shot her idea down first? Was it Kathy Catazaro-Perry, a likely challenger to our mayor for life?

Nope.

It was our Mayor for Life;

"Cicchinelli is opposed to a levy... He also opposes increasing the income tax during poor economic times" (The Independent, July 13, 2010).

Cicchinelli once more threw Auditor Ferrero under the bus. Things were great in Tiger Town over the Summer. The mayor had just doled out 4% pay raises to the city's unions and the mayor was confident in the city's financial condition;

"We'll be able to pay for these increases," Cicchinelli said. "I'm not concerned about it. We will be there. I feel confident the dollars will be there to make it through this year and we'll have the dollars to make it through next year" (The Independent, July 6, 2010).

In November, it appeared Ferrero may have been correct about looking for revenue streams.

"The need for additional revenue is not going to go away," Cicchinelli said, urging council to help find new money for the city" (The Independent, November 9, 2010).

What? Now we have a "need for additional revenue?"

Back in July, our beloved Mayor for Life chastised Ferrero for dare suggesting that all was not well with the city's finances. Of course Jayne Ferrero knows her role. When the Mayor for Life throws her under the bus, she accepts it.

Jayne Ferrero is a faithful foot soldier in General Frank's army.

Instead of offering an "I told you so defense," she joins the mayor in circling the budgetary wagon.

When Cicchinelli was whining because he thought everyone on council was on board with his unbalanced budget since no one called to tell him they were against it, and because Frank chose to ignore subtle hints, such as Kathy Catazaro-Perry calling his budget "horrible," the loyal Jayne Ferrero was there to offer a full throated defense of the mayor's unbalanced budget;

"No one, no one that voted against the budget gave me the courtesy of a phone call," Ferrero said. "That kind of disturbs me because it tells me you don't really want to know. This is the same kind of budget we've gone through since I was on council and since I've been auditor for three years. We always go in knowing our budget is going to be short because we only have so much money to certify at the start of the year" (The Independent, December 28, 2010).

Uh, Jayne. This is the mayor's budget. Why should members of council be calling you?

Uh, Jayne. Why are you so 'disturbed?' This is the mayor's budget. Why are you taking it's failure so personally?

Uh, Jayne. What happened to "we need to be looking at revenue streams?"

We are sure the Mayor for Life sleeps well at night knowing that however poorly he treats the auditor, that she will will always have his back.

No matter what.