MRDD chief blames official for levy requests

Officials said financial
information is readily
available.

By D.A. WILKINSON

VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU

LISBON — William Devon, superintendent of the Columbiana County Board of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities, blames a county official for the board’s seeking more revenue.

That official, county Auditor Nancy Milliken, and other county officials disagreed with Devon.

Devon met with county commissioners Wednesday and distributed a press release stating the MRDD’s finance committee will look at the MRDD’s revenue, and then the full board will meet.

The MRDD board in early 2007 passed an issue that increased one of its existing four levies. That will bring in an additional $1 million a year.

Voters last November rejected a new 2.5-mill levy that would have given the board an additional $3.3 million a year. That issue has already been put on the 2008 primary ballot.

Devon had been saying the board needed more revenue, especially to keep the Robert Bycroft School for youths open. That program is not mandatory, and youths could be sent to their home districts, which would have to pay for their care.

The levy increase approved in the 2007 primary, along with revenue from the proposed 2.5-mill issue and what was about $6.6 million in MRDD assets in mid-December, would give MRDD close to a full year’s appropriations of about $12 million.

Devon’s statement said: “The county auditor certified the levy request and never stated in any fashion that with our cost cutting measures and additional revenues had been collected, changing our financial situation (sic.)”

Devon’s statement indicated that now the Bycroft School will be “open well into the future.”

Devon said that since a bookkeeper left MRDD last year, he didn’t get timely financial data from the county auditor’s office.

Milliken said that the bookkeeper who took over at the MRDD had worked for Milliken’s office before moving to MRDD. The worker, Milliken added, is in the county auditor’s office almost every day conducting business, and could easily get the latest information on MRDD’s finances.

County departments routinely call the auditor’s office for financial information, as do members of the public, Milliken said.

County Treasurer Nick Barborak said his office and Milliken’s office reconcile their figures every day.

Officials — and the public — can and do call for information, he added.

Milliken, Barborak and county Prosecutor Robert Herron compose the county budget commission. It certifies the amount and millage county agencies want for issues, but does not endorse the issues.

“We’re not saying whether they need it or not,” Milliken said.

Herron, who unsuccessfully sought more money this year to fight increasing drug-related crime, said action such as the MRDD’s levy request puts officials in a negative light.

“It paints us all with the same brush,” Herron said.

Jim Hoppel, chairman of the commissioners, said the commissioners voted to place the 2.5-mill levy on the ballot but were not endorsing it.

The MRDD statement said it would also ask the state auditor’s office for a performance audit, which looks at operations.

Emily K. Frazee, a spokeswoman for the state auditor, said that would take about five to six months.

Commissioner Dan Bing has said the proposed levy could be taken off the primary ballot until the time the ballots are printed.

The county board of elections will start programming its computer for the primary election Tuesday, and could face extra work if the MRDD levy is withdrawn.

wilkinson@vindy.com