Liberty trustees put cap on department expenditures without pre-approval

By Sarah Lehr | February 9, 2016 at 12:05a.m.

LIBERTY

Trustees voted Monday to put a cap on the amount of money department heads can spend without prior approval by the board.

Department heads must now clear purchases of more than $1,000 with trustees. The previous cap for purchases needing board pre-approval was $2,500.

Trustees cited a need to more-closely monitor spending because the township is in fiscal caution, as designated by the state. Trustees have submitted a financial-recovery plan to the state auditor’s office.

Fire Chief Gus Birch expressed disagreement with the cap, saying, “You need to have faith in your department heads that we are trying to watch our money.”

Police Chief Richard Tisone said waiting for approval would slow the purchasing process and be an inconvenience for trustees.

Fiscal Officer Steve Shelton defended the measure, stating that it was similar to caps used by other townships.

“The fact that we have such issues with the police and fire department [budgets] shows that we need to limit spending where we can,” Shelton said. “The fact that we had to borrow to make payroll shows why this is necessary.”

Trustees moved in December to borrow $300,000, which will be distributed 55-45 percent between the police and fire district funds.

The police fund has a positive balance of $52,320, and the fire fund has a positive $74,573 balance as of January 2016, but Shelton has projected deficits for those funds after expenses.

As of January, though the township had a general-fund deficit of $156,471, it had a total balance of $579,279 in all funds.

In other business, trustees passed a resolution to distribute revenue from the township tow yard with 90 percent going to the police fund and 10 percent going to the general fund until August 2016. After August 2016, 80 percent of revenue will go to the police fund and 20 percent will go to the general fund.

Trustee Jason Rubin voted against the resolution, saying he believed all revenue should go to the police fund in part because the police department is responsible for operating the tow yard.

Trustees also celebrated the promotions of two firefighters. Al Rivalsky was promoted from firefighter to lieutenant, and Cathy Macchione was promoted from lieutenant to captain, both effective Jan. 19.

Macchione earns $28.64 an hour and Rivalsky earns $26.48 an hour.