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Niles seeks permission to transfer money to general fund, utility funds
Law director wants to move more than $1.1M
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
The Niles law director has filed a petition with the Trumbull County Common Pleas Court seeking permission to transfer $474,199 from four funds to the city’s general fund and $700,000 to three utility funds.
It’s a total of $1,174,199.
The general fund is the fund that the city uses to pay for most services, such as police and fire.
The city’s finances were determined to be in such bad shape last year that the Ohio Auditor’s Office placed the city in fiscal emergency, which institutes a commission to oversee the city’s spending.
The $700,000 would be split this way: $350,000 to the “light fund” for the city’s electric-generation utility; $175,000 to the water department fund; and $175,000 to the sewer fund.
Among the reasons the state gave in October 2014 for putting the city in fiscal emergency was deficit spending, including a $2.7 million shortfall in the city’s water department fund.
A hearing on the proposed transfers is scheduled for 11 a.m. Thursday before Judge W. Wyatt McKay.
Niles Law Director J. Terrence Dull announced last week the city’s plans to transfer $450,000 from dormant funds into the general fund to help the city balance its budget and avert layoffs for the remainder of this year.
Dull filed the petition last week, asking that $700,000 be moved from the utility trust fund, “which is no longer subject to claims of customers of [the city’s] utilities due to failure to claim deposits or overpayments for an extended period of time.”
The petition adds that “failure to claim said deposits or overpayments for an extended period of time prohibits filing of a claim at a later time.”
The city says moving the money to the general fund “is necessary in order to allow their utilization in a lawful manner.”
The Niles auditor determined that the distribution from the utility trust fund includes $175,000 from the water fund, $175,000 from the sewer fund, and $350,000 from the light fund.
The petition asks for $210,762.61 to be transferred from the transit fund, which was established for the operation of the former Niles Transit System, which is no longer in operation.
“All indebtedness, interest and other obligations for the payment of which the fund exists have been paid, retired or otherwise discharged,” the petition says.
The city advised the Trumbull County commissioners in 2011 that the city could no longer afford to operate Niles Transit, and the county took over the service Jan. 1, 2012, calling it Trumbull Transit.
The petition asks for permission to transfer $133,999.80 from the unclaimed monies fund, “for which no claims have been made within a five-year period.”
The fund was created to hold payments that may be due to a customer, vendor or other person or entity failing to claim payments within a five-year period.
Failing to claim the money within a five-year period “prohibits filing of a claim at a later time,” the petition says.
The petition asks for permission to transfer $100,255.16 into the general fund from the special assessment bond retirement fund.
The petition says all indebtedness, interest and other obligations for which said fund was established “have been paid, retired, or otherwise discharged.”
Similarly, the petition also asks for $29,182.41 to be transferred to the general fund from the general obligation bond retirement fund. It says all obligations of that fund have also been “paid, retired or otherwise discharged.”
The petition contains a letter from Joseph Testa, tax commissioner for the Ohio Department of Taxation, stating that the proposed transfers of unclaimed money, transit fund and utility trust fund comply with Ohio law, and approving the city’s request to file the petition to the common pleas court.
Testa said he lacked jurisdiction to consider the request for transfer to the general fund of money from the general obligation bond retirement fund and the special assessment bond retirement fund.