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Campbell grapples with reconciling bank statements
By jeanne starmack
campbell
The city’s finance director is grappling with a backlog of 14 months’ worth of reconciliations between bank statements and the city’s books.
Mayor Bill VanSuch says he’s concerned the reconciliations won’t be finished by December, when the city would like to request a release from state-mandated fiscal emergency. The city will not be released without them, he said.
“Absolutely, we won’t release Campbell,” said Paul Marshall, chairman of a state-appointed commission that has been overseeing the city’s finances since it went into fiscal emergency in 2004.
“[Finance Director] Sherman [Miles] knows that,” he said.
Miles, who has been the city’s finance director since October 2009, said Tuesday he was still working on reconciling statements for March 2010. He still had a discrepancy of $800, he said.
He got help from the state auditor’s office to help reconcile books and statements from January and February of 2010.
He said the auditor’s office presented “very thorough paperwork” but he was not taught how to do the reconciliations.
“It’s different for government,” he said.
Marshall acknowledged it is more involved timewise.
“But, you check your records against the bank’s,” he said.
Miles said he asked again in April if he could get help from the auditor’s office, but was turned down.
“He asked me,” Marshall said. “I told him ‘no,’ I wasn’t gonna pay the state to reconcile the books. That’s his job.
“I’m trying to do the best I can to get caught up,” said Miles, adding that there are other issues he is dealing with to help the city get out of fiscal emergency.
“It’s time consuming and tedious,” Marshall acknowledged, but said “every other finance director” has to do it.
Miles also said he got behind when he was suspended by the city’s former Mayor, George Krinos, in April 2010. A court fight ensued between Krinos and the city council, which supported Miles. He won a temporary restraining order to return to work several weeks later. Miles said late Tuesday afternoon that he heard from the state auditor’s office, which told him the unreconciled $800 is a small enough amount of money for him to go on to April 2010’s reconciliations.
He also confirmed he is getting guidance from Eric Seachrist, formerly an assistant finance director for Hudson, Ohio.
“He’s guiding me through so I can develop a system,” Miles said, adding that he shouldn’t need Seachrist beyond April 2010’s books. “After I have a good system going forward, I can handle it on my own.”
He said he is paying Seachrist’s $40-an-hour fee out of his own pocket.
Campbell’s previous finance director also got behind in reconciling books and bank statements, said Miles and Marshall.