TRUMBULL COUNTY Auditor holds up commissioners' plan on funds use

Documentation needed that work is being done for these agencies.
WARREN -- The Trumbull County Auditor's Office has held up commissioners' plan to pay part of three employees' wages from funds other than the strained general fund.
Commissioners, trying to ease the demand on a $32 million general fund with a $6 million shortfall this year, voted last week to pay 20 percent of Administrator Tony Carson's $62,000 salary from the sanitary engineer's fund.
They also voted to pay clerks Kathy A. Terlecky and Paula J. Vivoda-Klotz 20 percent each from the general fund, Department of Job and Family Services, Child Support Enforcement Agency, sanitary engineer and workers' compensation funds.
The auditor's office asked the county prosecutor to look into whether these funds can be used to pay these three employees.
"You can't do that. Those are restricted funds," explained Adrian Biviano, chief deputy auditor. "You cannot just arbitrarily allocate payments out of these without some representation of work performed."
There needs to be documentation that the three employees are actually doing work for these agencies. If so, the auditor's office wants commissioners to bill these accounts for services, rather than to remove money for wages directly from those funds, Biviano said.
James Misocky, assistant prosecutor, wrote to Carson that commissioners should examine the employees' duties "and make a reasonable determination of the allocation of duties for the various functions."