Ignoring state fiscal panel will be bad for Campbell

What are the mayor and city council of Campbell thinking? Apparently not much, when it comes to government’s hemorrhaging operations budget.

Otherwise they would not be risking a legal smack down from the state Financial Planning and Supervision Commission. The commission, chaired by an expert in government financing, Paul Marshall, was impaneled in 2004 after Campbell was declared by the Ohio auditor’s office be in fiscal emergency. The declaration means that expenditures were outpacing revenues with no solution in sight.

Marshall and his colleagues have had from the outset a no-nonsense approach to their statutory duties, which is why the failure by Mayor George Krinos and city council to do what the commission has demanded is so shocking.

As we said in an editorial three months ago regarding Campbell’s fiscal emergency designation, state law is unambiguous when it comes to the role of the fiscal oversight commission. We noted that city officials would do well to look at how the Youngstown City School District, which also is in emergency, has responded to its commission.

Business as usual — and that includes political infighting — is not an option and is not to be tolerated. Why? Because the officials who have oversight responsibilities have a legal responsibility to not only make sure the red ink in the budget is erased, but that government has a long-term plan for fiscal stability.

The failure by Mayor Krinos and council to comply with the dictates of the commission prompted Chairman Marshal to say that legal action could be taken if a recovery plan isn’t submitted by Aug. 16.

The plan had been requested during the panel’s June meeting and was to have been submitted in time for the meeting this month. It wasn’t.

Council President Bill VanSuch’s reaction to the threat of legal action illustrates the problem: A clash between the mayor and lawmakers over the budget.

“I assumed the mayor was going to put a plan together first, and we [council] would give our input,” he said.

Battles

Why make that assumption, given what has been going in the city since Krinos took office? His battle with Finance Director Sherman Miles, his decision to recall a laid-off firefighter when no money was being allocated, and his refusal to lay off the firefighter even though the city is on track to run out of money by mid-November are revealing.

Rather than wait for Krinos to come up with ideas to balance the budget — he’s talking about combining dispatching for police and fire — council should work with Miles to develop its own plan that follows the parameters established by the commission.

As has been shown in the Youngstown school system and other public entities whose budgets have been controlled by state panels, doing nothing or trying to avoid the tough decisions are not options.

Ignoring the state fiscal oversight panel could be hazardous to Campbell.

In April, the chairman of the state fiscal commission asked the mayor about the status of a fiscal recovery plan that was to have been submitted at the meeting and was not. The mayor’s response: He didn’t get around to doing it.

No wonder the commission is angry.