Campbell almost out of fiscal emergency

By jeanne starmack

starmack@vindy.com

campbell

The city is continuing to make progress toward getting out of fiscal emergency, and that could happen as early as next year.

What’s left to be done includes taking an inventory of all city assets, changing over to a different method of accounting, and being able to project a positive cash balance in the city for the next five years.

The city has been able to project a positive cash balance for four years so far.

City Finance Director Sherman Miles said this week that the city is expecting new software in March to replace the software that dates back to 1986. That will make it easier, he said, to convert to a system called Generally Accepted Accounting Practices, or GAAP accounting. GAAP is required under Ohio law, he said. The city has been fined $750 a year for not using GAAP ever since it went into fiscal emergency in 2004.

The city also needs an inventory of all its assets, because under GAAP accounting, the assets are recorded in financial statements, he said. He said he is talking to asset-evaluation firms about doing an inventory.

There are other changes that have to be made, Miles said. The city has to have written procedures for how it closes monthly financial records. There has to be proof the city is soliciting bids for all purchases over $1,000. The city also has to make sure any contractors it hires don’t owe money to the state or other government entities.

Miles said the city wants to ask for release from fiscal emergency by the end of the year.

“We are definitely getting closer,” he said.

Paul Marshall, who chairs a state commission that oversees the city while it’s in fiscal emergency, said it’s possible the commission would ask the state auditor by the end of the year for an analysis on whether Campbell can shed its fiscal-emergency status.

He said the commission works closely with the auditor’s office, and that office would indicate the city is ready to ask for release from fiscal emergency.

“Unless the auditor’s office feels they’re ready, then why bother,” he said.

“If the commission and the auditor’s office agree, then the commission votes to ask the auditor for a termination analysis,” he continued. “That could take a month, or a year or more. Typically, it takes three to six months.”

Marshall said the city’s full-time paid fire department is a detriment. The city is converting to an all-volunteer department, but the full-time staff is allowed to stay until retirement. Marshall also said the city might have to look at its police force.

“I’m not saying there are too many,” he said. “But how many can you afford?”

Marshall said the commission would not tell the city to lay off firefighters or police officers. The city might be able to balance the budget some other way, he said.