Campbell expects to gain release from fiscal emergency in January

October 16, 2012 at 12:00a.m.

By jeanne starmack

campbell

Campbell is on track to ask for release from fiscal emergency in January.

If the city’s financial position remains good, a commission that has overseen it since it entered fiscal emergency status in 2004 will petition for the release, said the panel’s chairwoman, Sharon Hanrahan, at a commission meeting Monday.

The city will need to complete its financial accounting statements for 2012, said Nita Hendrix, a commission member from the state auditor’s office.

The city also must address audit recommendations and noncompliance findings in the 2010-11 state audit, and must have a positive five-year financial forecast, Hendrix said.

Mike Evanson, the city’s financial director, said he has addressed the audit issues, and he provided the commission with details.

The five-year forecast looks good, Hendrix said, provided renewal levies keep passing.

City council President George Levendis pointed out that another criteria for getting out of fiscal emergency was reconciling a backlog of monthly bank statements to the city’s books, and that has been done.

Hanrahan said that once the city closes out this financial year, she will present a resolution on what likely will be the commission’s last meeting Jan. 28 that the commission ask for the city’s release.

The city council also will have to pass an ordinance requesting release.

Another team of auditors that is not familiar with the city’s financial issues will act as “a fresh set of eyes” and do “a termination analysis,” Hanrahan said, to make sure that the city is ready for release.

“I don’t anticipate any issues,” she said. “I really think it’s going to be good.”

The process, from asking for release through the termination analysis, should take at least six months, she said.

Hendrix said that the city’s overall financial picture looks good, except for an ongoing problem reining in the police and fire departments’ overtime costs.

She said city income-tax collection is up $236,000.

“We’ll have a balanced budget this year,” Hendrix said.