PHENIX CITY, Ala. — City manager Wallace Hunter admitted the city has in fact lost tens of millions in its net position in recent years, again labeling the city’s own financial data as so-called “false information” in the process. 

This is the second time Hunter has attempted to discredit the city’s own published financial records in an effort to silence the Muckraker’s reporting on the subject. Apparently, Hunter believes the city’s data somehow magically becomes “false information” when we publish it for people to actually see. 

Back in early September, we showed in detail how the city’s own financial records show an adjusted loss of $23 million from 2013 to 2020. Hunter had responded by accidentally labeling the city’s own financial data as so-called “false information” while attempting to downplay our reporting, ironically urging residents to get their information from the same place the Muckraker did when publishing our article: from the city clerk’s office. 

We then published another article highlighting Hunter’s apparent double-speak, which also showed the public how they can access the city’s own financial data themselves through the city’s own official website. 

Now, during the city council meeting held on October 18, 2022, Hunter went on an emotionally-driven tirade to silence our reporting in which he inadvertently admitted the city did in fact lose tens of millions from 2013 to 2022.

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Hunter began his statement by describing his displeasure with how the Muckraker published the city’s financial data for the public to see:

“One thing that does bother me — and I might as well say this on TV — we have someone out there (Muscogee Muckraker) that’s puttin’ things about our financial situation on Facebook,” Hunter said.

Hunter then tried to explain away the city’s financial predicament by attempting to discredit our thoroughly-cited reporting on the city’s own financial data. Hunter erroneously stated that the city’s credit rating — which was assigned more than five years ago — somehow “disproves” the city’s tens-of-millions in recent financial losses:

 “But I’ll tell anybody this: with the credit rating that we have, if those things were true, we would not have that credit rating,” Hunter said in a rage. 

Contrary to Hunter’s words, the city’s financial losses are in fact very true, and we encourage readers to view the city’s own official information through the city’s own official website to see it for themselves. 

Hunter’s words conveniently failed to mention that the Standard & Poor’s AA- credit rating he was referring to was assigned to the city in 2017, before the city lost the $23 million adj. The five-year-old rating is — by its nature — based on data that existed before the loss occurred. It is unclear why Hunter chose this as an argument point to “disprove” the financial loss, as it simply isn’t relevant. It suggests he is merely attempting to limit public knowledge of the very real financial loss.

The credit document Hunter referred to also describes the city as having a “weak economy” and a “very weak debt and contingent liability position” — though Hunter also chose to omit that from his statement as well. 

Hunter then went on to base his argument on another illogical false equivalency, stating the fact the city lost $23 million is somehow proof the city is not “going broke”:

“You gotta make ya’ mind up when you make these false accusations about the city,” Hunter said. “ If the city is broke, how can the city lose $26 million (sic, $23 million)? There’s no way — that math don’t work out.” 

Hunter appeared to not understand that losing millions is quite literally what “going broke” means.

Firstly, Hunter’s words admitted the city did in fact lose tens of millions of dollars, just as the city’s own financial records show. Secondly, the answer to Hunter’s question is fairly simple: losing money is what going broke means. When a city loses 26% of its wealth steadily over eight years, the English language tends to refer to that as going broke.

For a quick review: In 2013, the city had a raw net position of $69.9 million, which is $88.9 million in today’s value. In 2020, that $88.9 million amount was reduced to just $65.8 million. The $23 million loss was 26% of the city’s entire wealth. You can see the city’s data for yourself here.

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Hunter continued his statements by again urging residents to get their information from the same place the Muckraker does: from the city clerk’s office. 

“If people wanna know what the situation, the financial situation the city is in, come get your documentation from our clerk’s office,” Hunter said. 

The Muckraker also encourages residents to rely on the city’s official financial data; that’s why we use it ourselves and properly cite it within our publications. You can see for yourself how to easily view the city’s data online through our how-to article on the subject. 

Hunter likely knows that less than fifty individual people ever view a given city council meeting. Hunter also likely knows that tens of thousands of residents read our publications. It is rather telling that Hunter continues to claim the city’s own data magically becomes “false information” when we print it in formats for people to actually see. We wonder why that might be. 

 Explore it for yourself and see what you find. We will leave it to you as the reader to make your own deductions about what might be motivating Mr. Hunter’s apparent double-speak. 

You can view Hunter’s full statement beginning at the 46:40-mark of the video below:

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Facts are stubborn things — and we’ll keep publishing them, whether city officials like them or not.

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