State auditors review latest Niles recovery plan

By Jordan Cohen | February 5, 2016 at 12:09a.m.

NILES

Mayor Thomas Scarnecchia said he hopes to have a decision from the city’s financial supervisors on the viability of his revised financial-recovery plan by “early next week.”

The mayor and city Auditor Giovanne Merlo gave the supervisors their first look at the plan Thursday, a meeting that lasted three hours.

The supervisors, who are state auditors, must determine if the plan is viable before it can be submitted to city council for approval.

State law requires financial-recovery plans for cities in fiscal emergency, where Niles has been for 16 months.

Scarnecchia opposes several provisions in the current plan that was put together by the mayor’s predecessor, Ralph Infante, shortly before Infante left office.

Neither Scarnecchia nor the auditor would divulge the plan’s contents. “Until we get further discussion and analysis, we can’t comment,” Merlo said.

“We have it, and we’re running the numbers, but I’m not sure how long that will take,” said Carrie Bartunek, communications director for Ohio Auditor Dave Yost. Bartunek also would not discuss the plan’s components.

Last week, Yost sent a strongly worded letter to Scarnecchia warning the mayor he was failing to comply with the law because he would not act on the provisions he opposes. Those provisions include elimination of police dispatchers, outsourcing city-tax collection and eliminating the income-tax department.

“[The mayor] must follow the current plan until the revised plan is approved by city council and accepted by the Financial Planning and Supervision Commission,” Bartunek said.

Scarnecchia would not say if there was reaction or comment from the supervisors about his plan. “It was a very cordial and a good meeting” was all he would say.

The mayor also would not discuss the status of his previously stated proposal to use enterprise funds from Niles’ water, light and sewer departments instead of the deficit-ridden general fund to maintain the dispatchers.

Merlo said, however, the supervisors were given a time study that the city hopes will substantiate the amount of work the dispatchers provide on behalf of the three departments.

One possible factor in the supervisors’ analysis may be the status of the water fund, which, like the city’s general fund, has a huge deficit.

“It’s at $1.6 million, but we project it to balance by mid-2017,” said Councilman Barry Steffey, D-4th, council finance chairman.

The current general-fund deficit is in excess of $1 million, and commission members have warned that delays in implementing the current or revised plan will only increase the red ink.

If supervisors approve the plan, council would vote on its acceptance no later than its next meeting, Feb. 17, the day before the deficit commission convenes.

“I think it’s looking good,” Scarnecchia said. “I hope so.”