As my colleague Chad Garrison reported yesterday, a newly released audit (link PDF) of St. Louis City Hall and the Board of Aldermen has revealed numerous questionable purchases, including two sedans with heated steering wheels.
However, Gut Check's eye was caught by the lede in the AP report on the audit published in the Columbia Missourian:
The city of St. Louis circumvented normal purchasing procedures to buy "emergency" items that don't meet that definition, such as a sno-cone machine, fleece blankets and magnetic baseball schedules, a state audit says.
A sno-cone machine! As regular readers know, this is a subject close to my heart. So who at City Hall wanted a sno-cone machine? For what reason? And were they inspired by Gut Check's Snow Cone Week?
Stay tuned.
