Ladies and gentlemen, can I have a volunteer from the audience please?

Yes, thank you sir.

You stand here and hand me your wallet please.

Now, direct your attention to the wall behind you. That’s right, turn around.

Please watch the wall while I flip your wallet open and let all of your money fall to the floor.

Then, the cleaning crew is going to come sweep your dollars away.

But you won’t care, because you won’t know.

And maybe, by the time you turn around, I will have put some of your money back where I got it.

A bunk magic show? Nope, just city government.

Our city leaders recently repaved four bumpy roads with money they didn’t have.

They proceeded to expand the project to two more roads and a railroad track because they thought there was extra money.

But worse than the actual deed was the aftermath.

Some of the city’s leaders preferred to just sweep this one under the rug, or shall we say, asphalt.

Admittedly, our newspaper was late on this story. We didn’t hear the news early on in November when the city discovered that there was no $1.3 million check in the mail.

And when we did hear the news just before Christmas, holiday schedules made it difficult to report the story quickly.

But, when we did get moving on the story, several city leaders started building protective walls around the news.

Though many of the aldermen were open about the situation, others in city government seemed to think the matter simply didn’t need to be reported until it was resolved.

The city believes it can still get some of the money from the state. But at this point, that’s merely a belief, not a fact.

The city has already taken out a loan with a 5-percent interest rate just to pay the road contractor for his work.

The interest on the bank loan will have to be paid with taxpayer dollars — my taxpayer dollars and yours.

If the city can’t get more money from the state, it may have to apply for more loans. Or leaders may have to raise taxes — my taxes and your taxes.

This is a big mistake with potentially devastating consequences.

But mistakes happen.

We all know that. As voters, we have to realize that our leaders are no more perfect than we are.

We hope that the mistakes will be few and far between and with minor consequences, but we know they’ll come.

And we must always let our leaders know that we expect better next time.

But, to the city, what really matters isn’t the mistake; it’s how you handle it.

We’ve chosen you to be our city leaders. That means we trust you.

And with trust comes the expectation of total honesty.

Be upfront with your taxpayers. Don’t fear criticism.

Admit fault, announce a plan and move on.

You are not magicians. You can’t pull one over on us for long. But you can be open enough to tell us exactly what the mistake is, how it happened, what you will do to correct it and how it will affect us.

That is all any taxpayer can ask of you. And that’s all you can give.

But when you try to run our city while the citizens have their backs turned, you’ll fail and you’ll bring us all down with you.

Julie Cooper is the managing editor of The Natchez Democrat. She can be reached at 601-445-3551 or julie.cooper@natchezdemocrat.com.