In a discussion over a proposed rainy day fund—which Mayor Tom Potter is proposing in a resolution—Commissioners Randy Leonard and Sam Adams took aim at the mayor’s recently tight control of the city’s Office of Management and Finance (OMF).

According to Leonard, OMF has “been constrained by [the mayor’s] office in providing information and technical assistance” to craft budget alternatives. He asked the mayor for “a commitment from you that they work with us unfettered, like the city attorney does.”

Potter asked for a clarification. “I’d be interested to find out what it was you asked for but weren’t provided,” he asked.

“It’s that your office insists on being included in what I consider to be confidential discussions with my office,” says Leonard. “They’ve been directed that you be told about any inquires from my office… The city attorney has been outstanding on working with each of us on issues that are confidential to our offices… and that has historically been the relationship with OMF until this budget cycle.”

According to Adams, he asked OMF for info so he could craft a rainy day proposal. He was shut down by OMF—”I got an email from the mayor’s office that they would not support my request to do the kind of research” he’d need to do to create that proposal—and then Potter came forward with his proposal. (And Commissioner Dan Saltzman has an amendment to that proposal, which is what the council is technically discussing.)

“To reiterate my frustration, I have not been able to pursue lines of inquiry that I’d like to pursue,” Adams says.

Leonard and Adams questioned Ken Rust, head of OMF, and Casey Short, the city’s financial manager. Leonard asked Rust, who’s been with the city for fifteen years, if he could “name a time when a mayor said do not pursue that request from that Commissioner.” Rust could not.

Potter said he’d consult with the city attorney.

“We’re independently elected folks,” says Leonard, and he’s “willing to take the time necessary”—even if that means pushing the budget aside temporarily—to be sure he’s voting on something he’s comfortable with.