That was in 1997. Still Sal did not give up, even after so many setbacks. For soon he would add an ace to his hand . . .

In 1999, a young lawyer named Jeff Kottkamp decided to run for office, and asked for Sal’s support. Kottkamp was a loyal reader of Sal’s columns, and claimed to be for honest and limited government. That was enough for Sal; the two became friends. Kottkamp won in 2000, and was twice re-elected; now, years later, he serves as Florida’s Lieutenant Governor.

But before Kottkamp ascended to serve under Governor Charlie Crist, he exerted his influence to get the auditor’s office to focus in on Cape Coral.

Now, the preparing of the report was no small undertaking. At Sal’s request, the audit went beyond water and sewer, incorporating a local charter school and storm-water drainage systems as well.

The auditors in Tallahassee knew a resource when one plopped in its lap. They sent down a team to run through Sal’s evidence. After careful review, they then went off on their own.

In May 2006, Florida’s Auditor General published its report, an operational audit. It’s quite a document. It doesn’t take long even by merely skimming to see that Sal was basically right.

The summary of findings runs two pages. Finding No. 1 gives you a good indication of the general tenor: “The City had not maintained its accounting records on a current basis, or periodically reviewed them for completeness and accuracy.” If you are an accountant, you know what this means. If, like me, you are not an accountant, you still get the idea. Sheila Weinberg, Founder and CEO of the Institute for Truth in Accounting, draws a clear moral: “Like Sal, all Americans need to review their own governmental units’ books. Most likely,” she writes, we “will find ‘political math’ being used to report only what the politicians you want to know.”

The trouble in Cape Coral — short of actual conspiracy to defraud the public — can be summed up easily: The government has been no more transparent than the sewerage it runs. But, in part because they have listened to Sal Grosso, citizens are learning fast to see through the . . . usual politics.

A follow-up report by the Auditor General’s office — required by law to be published within 18 months of the initial audit — is late. Sal speculates that the Auditor General’s office has uncovered more chicanery, and is consulting with prosecutors.

This suspicion is far from groundless. In one of the more interesting developments in the story, the city government hired an independent auditor — the prestigious Kessler International — in hopes of getting a better result. Kessler came out with its report (also in 2006), focusing on a utility expansion project. It was even more damning. Based on that audit, the federal Department of Justice began its own, still ongoing, investigation.

While the citizens of Cape Coral wait, their city manager has been kept on. On the bright side, $157 million of reserve funds are now included in the official budget. Alas, there are plans to spend $85 million of that . . . in a city budget that has nearly doubled in the last three years.

As Sal says, “There’s a lot of work left to do.” Thank goodness there are people like Sal Grosso (in Cape Coral and elsewhere) who keep on plugging.