Campbell sees the light at the end of fiscal tunnel

Although the city of Campbell will continue to be under state-declared fiscal emergency until January 2013, there are encouraging signs that City Hall will be able to shed the budgetary shackles by this time next year. Just over a month ago, there were strong indications that Campbell, whose finances have been controlled by a fiscal oversight commission for the past seven years, would have a difficult time proving it has control of the situation.

Sharon Hanrahan, commission chairwoman, told Mayor William VanSuch and members of council at a Dec. 19 meeting that there were still too many accounting and bookkeeping deficiencies that had gone uncorrected for quite some time, thus dashing any hopes the mayor had of the city emerging from emergency in December. Hanrahan then informed the local officials that the earliest Campbell would be ready to ask for a release would be January 2013.

The accounting and bookkeeping deficiencies were the result of the former finance director, Sherman Miles, not having the expertise to perform some of the basic tasks of government accounting. Miles was so far behind in reconciling monthly bank statements with the city’s ledgers that the fiscal oversight commission suggested the hiring of the state auditor’s office to clean up the mess.

However, Mayor VanSuch chose to appoint a new finance director, Michael Evanson, former treasurer of the Struthers School District. While we had urged him to follow Hanrahan’s advice and bring in state auditors, it is clear that the city of Campbell has made progress in dealing with the accounting deficiencies.

In response to a request from the fiscal oversight commission for a schedule for when the backlog will be cleared, city officials this week indicated that the bank-statement reconciliations, which go back to May 2010, are expected to be done by July 31.

The mayor also said that of the 45 deficiencies that remained uncorrected, 25 have been addressed, 15 are in the process of being corrected and five remain because the city needs information from a company that’s evaluating its assets.

Credit should go to council President George Levendis and council Clerk Dina Hamilton who wrote many of the policies and gave them to the law director for approval.

Finance Director Evanson will also provide policies and procedures he had in place when he was with Struthers schools.

“A lot of work has been done, and I’m very happy with the way things are going,” said Tim Lintner, a financial supervisor on the oversight commission.

Progress

Commission Chairwoman Hanrahan also said she was pleased with the progress city leaders have made toward gaining release from fiscal emergency.

In 2005, the state auditor’s office determined that the city’s operating budget was bleeding red ink and local officials did not have the ability to turn things around. The oversight commission is a creature of state statute and has directed expenditures and guided the mayor and council on how to increase revenue.

In 2010, residents approved a levy to stabilize the collapsing economy; as a result, the budget is no longer in shambles.

While things are beginning to improve, we would urge the mayor and council not to hesitate to contract with the state auditor’s office to do any heavy lifting that may be required.