“I was sort of Xed out,” says Lambert, who is a vice president and financial adviser with Banc of America Investment Services Inc. “I’m the only person on the transition team with experience with ledgers, debits, credits and financial planning. I was obviously going to specifically go in and ask some financial questions. So it was kind of surprising I wasn’t let in.”

Lambert is one of more than a dozen people Woody has named to help him study the jail and make recommendations on improving it.

A spokesperson for outgoing Sheriff Michelle B. Mitchell could not be reached for comment by press time Dec. 30. A call to Woody also was not returned by press time.

Of the tour, Lambert says he was told that Woody had tried to “get into the business and finance department” at the jail, but was informed that the person he needed to speak with wasn’t there.

While the tour now may be old news, Lambert says the state of the jail’s finances is not. Mitchell previously has said that she’s asked for and received “audits and inspections” of the jail’s finances, among other things, to prepare for the transition.

Lambert’s efforts to look into the jail’s finances are independent of efforts by the city administration, he stresses. Even so, he adds: “The bottom line is, I’ve been charged to go in and get some of that stuff straight.”