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Liberty waits for word
By jeanne starmack
liberty
The township is waiting for word that it will be released from fiscal-caution status.
The state auditor’s office placed the township under fiscal caution in October because of 2008-09 state audit findings that had to do with improper budget-fund transfers.
State Auditor Dave Yost said Oct. 3 that the township didn’t repay the findings, and had it made the adjustments, the general fund would have had a negative cash fund balance of $313,110.
The township did not have the money to correct the findings, and was expecting the fiscal-caution notice. Then it received $400,000 in state inheritance taxes.
At a meeting Oct. 2, trustees passed a resolution to use part of that money to correct the negative balance, township law director Mark Finamore explained in October. The money was also used to pay $20,000 from the general fund to the fire fund and $15,000 from the police fund to the fire fund, according to the resolution.
The resolution was too late to stop the state’s action, but because the steps to correct the findings already had been taken, the township expects to be released from fiscal caution.
The state wanted a fiscal recovery plan within 60 days.
Finamore said Friday that he sent a letter Nov. 8 to the state auditor outlining the corrective actions in the resolution.
A week later, he heard from representatives of the auditor’s office that it wanted a clarification that the corrections he outlined in his letter constitute a recovery plan.
He said he sent the clarification Nov. 27, and is now waiting to hear back from the state.