Councilwoman Kim Gray expressed surprise Stoney’s administration would shy away from the review at a time when they’re proposing a slate of fee increases in the coming year’s budget.

”This is an administration that proposed a budget asking our citizens to pay more in utilities and fees to be able to achieve basic city services,” Gray said. “So how can we in good faith ask for more from our citizens and not be willing to allow our revenue department to be audited.”

Addison said he appreciated that audits can be a lot of work and understood why the administration might have reservations. But he said he agreed that the city’s tax collection processes — particularly real estate taxes — need to be reviewed.

”It’s $50 million owed to us and we’re making tough decisions between funding schools, fully staffing our police department, our fire departments,” he said.

Trammell expressed disbelief that Stoney wouldn’t push his administration to cooperate with Dalal.