TAMPA — A top auditor for Hillsborough County may want to get away from it all when he returns home from a trip.
Internal performance auditor Jim Barnes sustained another beating from commissioners Wednesday, this one in absentia.
In recent days, commissioners have slammed Barnes for seeking a sharp pay raise for one of his assistants. They also accused him of meddling in budget preparations instead of doing the job they hired him to do.
On Wednesday, Commissioner Rose Ferlita suggested Barnes was running amok again. She questioned why he was holding private meetings with community activists to get their thoughts on the county budget.
She wondered why Barnes was so interested in the county budget, which is County Administrator Pat Bean's job, when he has completed few audits since being hired two years ago.
As the St. Petersburg Times noted in its Bay Buzz blog at tampabay.com last week, Barnes' senior auditor, Ken Gentile, sent an e-mail invitation to activists last week. Among the odd things: It was sent to a handful of people and gave them a day's notice of the meeting Friday at the SkyPoint condo in downtown Tampa.
Gentile lives there and told Ferlita that he intended to use a vacant conference room to get input on the budget process from people who have shown an interest. The meeting was canceled.
Ferlita didn't think much of the answer.
"This to me is not transparency," Ferlita said. "This to me is not in keeping with what your job description is."
But she said she really wanted to hear Barnes' explanation, hinting at trouble for him when he returns.
Ferlita repeatedly asked Gentile where his boss was. Gentile's answers progressed from out of the county to possibly in Nevada. He said Barnes returns April 6.
Attempts to confirm where Barnes is traveling to were not successful late Wednesday.
Commission Chairman Ken Hagan, however, said Barnes sought approval some time ago to travel to a pair of conferences. Hagan said he recalls the host cities as Las Vegas and Los Angeles, but he said couldn't remember the details, including the cost.
"I questioned the expense," Hagan said. "But at the same time, Mr. Barnes is a professional. He knows his budget and he should be able to determine if this development conference will benefit him and is worth the expense."
A Jim Barnes was staying Wednesday at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, where a meeting of professionals who measure city and county government performance was being held. There was no answer to a call made to that guest's room.
Ferlita said it's hard to imagine justifying a trip to Las Vegas.
"He could have satisfied his continuing education requirements without going to Las Vegas at the same time we're asking people to tighten their belts," she said.
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