Council rejects state performance audit

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

Van Wert City Council took a state performance audit off the table, but Council members pledged to work on a better way to assess the city’s financial performance.

Council President Gary Corcoran, a former company auditor himself, said the idea of a performance audit is a good one, but he had problems with the fact that the state’s audit compared Van Wert with communities that are very different — to each other and to Van Wert.

“It bothers me that the state auditors don’t have a reasonable level of performance,” Corcoran said of the fact that the Auditor of State’s Office would compare Van Wert to communities with different levels of performance.

The City Council president, however, did commend City Auditor Martha Balyeat for her efforts to establish financial planning for the city. “I look at Martha like the warning light on a car,” Corcoran said, noting that city officials need to do something about her budget warnings. “Martha is doing the right thing, now it’s up to us to respond.”

While Corcoran said he didn’t think a state performance audit was the right thing to do, he did note that Balyeat’s concerns do need to be addressed.

Two of those main concerns deal with the shifting of money from two voted income tax funds: The .5-percent tax used for street projects and the .22-percent tax used for capital projects within the police and fire departments.

The city currently pays 75 percent of administrative officials’ salaries from other funds, including the street fund, which decreases the amount of funding available for street projects, Balyeat noted, while using money from the .22-percent Safety Capital Fund takes money away from police and fire capital projects.

While Balyeat conceded defeat for her plan for a state performance audit, she reiterated her belief that the city needed to do a better job of financial planning. “I simply want a plan for moving forward,” she told City Council members.

Councilman At-Large Stan Agler said he feels that, for the present, Council needs to do a line-item review of city budgets to ensure that money is being spent wisely, a plan that other Council members and Corcoran agreed was a good idea.

Also Monday, Council approved new water and sewer rate legislation, with Councilman At-Large Jeff Agler voting against the measure because of his opposition to an increase in utility deposits aimed at helping local landlords.

Safety-Service Director Jay Fleming reported that curbs should be poured on the portion of West Main Street now being reconstructed sometime this week, and Council also adopted legislation accepting a lower valuation of the Walmart Supercenter property. Any shortages in revenues needed to pay a bond issued for infrastructure projects on the Towne Center property would be the responsibility of Equity Partners, the developers of the property, Law Director John Hatcher noted.

Fleming also noted that bids to install a traffic light at the intersection of Fox Road and Shannon Street were opened, with the lowest bid approximately $91,000, significantly under the project’s original cost estimate.

Council also approved preparing legislation that would authorize a number of projects at the Municipal Building, including a number of repairs to the building and changes to the front entrance to make it handicap accessible.

Mayor Don Farmer provided some positive information from retention-expansion meetings being held with local businesses, noting that Braun Industries is adding approximately 50 new jobs, and other companies also say they are doing well.

An ordinance approving a rezoning request for the Kennedy-Kuhn property on Van Wert-Decatur Road was prepared, although it can’t be approved until a public hearing is held on the request. That hearing is scheduled for 6 p.m. Monday, July 29, in Council Chambers.