As recently as Wednesday, the city's Audit Committee and acting finance director were expecting the audit to be released at the beginning of next week, in line with standard practice at the Office of the State Auditor. But on Thursday evening at 5 pm, the city requested a waiver to allow it to release the audit on Friday. City leaders have already seen its findings, and the decision bore the hallmark of a Friday afternoon "news dump" tactic in which bad news is released right before the weekend, when the public is less focused on city matters.