Canfield comes out clean on required audit

By Elise Franco

State auditors made small suggestions on how to improve the township.

CANFIELD — The township passed its state-required two-year audit with no major snags.

Fiscal officer Carmen Heasley said she’s pleased with the outcome and the fact that Canfield doesn’t owe the state any money.

“We are doing extremely well, and we’re very solvent,” she said. “We’re very [conscientious] of all our spending.”

Heasley said in the nearly 10 years she’s worked as fiscal officer for the township, she’s never failed an audit.

“All my audits have been excellent,” she said. “The only issues that have ever come up are suggestions they like to make so we can improve ourselves.”

In 2005, the township had about $4.2 million. The audit, which covered Jan. 1, 2006, to Dec. 31, 2006, showed the township ended 2006 with about $4.5 million.

Heasley said one of the things the auditors suggested was implementing more-specific work policies for township employees.

“They want us to have specific work policies in place so that if employees have concerns they can turn to this policy book, and hopefully it’s addressed in there,” she said.

One example Heasley gave is a ban on the use of township property or equipment, such as cellular phones, for personal purposes.

Trustee Randy Brashen said two other things the township was told it could improve upon were how it instructs the zoning department to do paperwork, and cutting back on the number of motions made during trustees meetings.

“We make a motion to accept the road report, the zoning report, fiscal report, and those aren’t needed,” he said. “Bluntly, they told us we need to break a bad habit. ... Just let everyone learn that this is the way we’re going to do it.”

Brashen said he and the rest of the trustees are pleased with the way Heasley has handled the township’s finances.

“She is investing the township money wisely, and she’s following all guidelines with no demerit,” he said. “I’d feel very secure that we have a good fiscal officer in control of our finances.”