TRUMBULL COUNTY Financial plan lacking, auditor says

The commission certified the county budget at $37.6 million.
By PEGGY SINKOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- Trumbull County commissioners have been uncooperative in working on the county's financial plan, Auditor David Hines said.
Hines said Thursday that he'd asked commissioners for a comprehensive plan -- in November -- but still has received nothing.
"We asked for it the day after the sales tax was defeated, the day after election," Hines said.
The Trumbull County Budget Commission certified the county's budget at $37.6 million during a meeting Thursday afternoon. Because voters defeated the sales tax, that amount will be around $32 million next year, said Hines, a budget commission member.
"Some type of plan has to be in place," the auditor noted.
Commissioner James Tsagaris said he agrees that a plan has to be created, but before that is done, he wants the state auditor's office to do performance audits of some county departments.
"Right now we are having the state auditor's office do an audit of the Trumbull County Convention and Visitors Bureau and I want the same thing on the other departments that cost us a lot of money," Tsagaris said.
"I'd like the jail and other departments like that looked at to make sure we are not doing anything wrong."
Tsagaris and Commissioner Dan Polivka said they do not know how much the performance audits will cost.
Other comments
"This is the first I heard of doing performance audits of other departments," said Commissioner Joseph Angelo. "This is news to me."
Angelo noted that commissioners still have to work at getting the budget completed by March 31.
"I was really hoping we would have $38 million," Angelo said. "Since we are less than that, we are now going to have to sharpen our pencils and go through the budget again."
Tsagaris said he has no idea how the budget commission came up with the $37.6 million figure.
"I've got to look at it to figure out where they got that amount," Tsagaris said. "We couldn't do our budget earlier because we had to wait for them to do the certification. We kept waiting and waiting."
Polivka said he wants to begin having meetings with the county auditor's office.
"We need to have some good, helpful meetings," Polivka said.
sinkovich@vindy.com