"I have read three other reports that say we did overpay," she said.

She called for an outside accounting firm to conduct a forensic audit of the authority so that it can be determined exactly what's going on.

"It does kind of sound like a smoke and mirrors deal," said Cockrel. "We may need to have an outside auditor look at the whole deal."

Last year, GDRRA — despite a previous City Council resolution declaring that the city wanted to move away from incineration, using a combination of landfills and recycling to deal with the city's waste — entered into a contract committing the city to incineration until the year 2021.

Breaking that agreement at this juncture would at best be extremely difficult, and might be impossible. So council's options are limited.

There are a few things, though, that it can do.

The first is to demand that GDRRA be required to present a real budget, and not just a line item completely lacking in details. Given the concerns about GDRRA's credibility and transparency issues over the years, anything less should be considered unacceptable. Taxpayers deserve to know exactly how that $14 million is being spent.

The other measure that should be taken is for council to formally demand that the outside forensic audit called for by Cockrel and Watson be conducted as soon as possible.

It is way past time to blow away the smoke and smash every mirror so that we all know exactly what is going on with GDRRA.

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