There are a multitude of questions — how much, why, when and who — surrounding the city’s recent disclosure about a billing mishap within Lawrence City Hall. But the city is taking appropriate steps to answer those questions and, most importantly, is being open with the public about the issue.

City Manager Tom Markus made a point to announce during a public meeting this week that he had hired an auditor to begin looking into billing irregularities related to the city’s miscellaneous categories of accounts receivable.

Markus would only say that it was discovered that a business owed a “significant” amount of money to the city. Upon further review, Markus has concerns that the business was never billed by the city. The public will expect more details about that incident in the future, but for the moment Markus is being reasonable in providing a basic description. It appears that the city doesn’t have a firm grasp on all the details currently, which is one reason why bringing in an outside auditor is appropriate.

Markus is concerned that the billing issue is not confined to this one business. He said it could involve multiple accounts and stretch back a number of years. We will have to wait and see what is found. But the public should have confidence that it will see what happened and receive an explanation about how it occurred and how it will be corrected.

Markus had the authority to hire an auditor without ever bringing the issue up in a public meeting, but he wisely chose to alert the public to this issue. Not every government leader would have taken that approach. Some would have tried to keep such an audit confined to an internal matter. More than likely, news of such an audit would have leaked, and it would have looked worse for all involved when the public learned of the audit.

During his tenure in Lawrence, Markus has shown a commitment to the idea of open government. He also demonstrated that he is detail-oriented and expects a high level of professionalism from the city’s staff. Those would be desirable attributes for all levels of local government.

Figuring out what happened with this city billing matter is important. Every dollar should always count at City Hall. Public officials should never feel comfortable asking for new public dollars unless they are confident they have been good stewards of past dollars.

The issue, though, goes beyond dollars and cents. The biggest risk to the city is not the amount of money in question, but rather is a loss of trust with the public. The city is vulnerable on that front. Rock Chalk Park’s bidding irregularities, former Mayor Jeremy Farmer’s legal troubles and several other issues have caused the public to question how the city handles its business. There is no issue more fundamental than the city’s handling of public money. If the public doesn’t have confidence the money is being cared for, it will be difficult to place trust with the city on other matters.

The city has done well in presenting this matter to the public, thus far. Here’s hoping the resolution is quick, complete and open for all the public to see.