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Liberty audit: 2 trustees overpaid
By Ed Runyan
LIBERTY
Former Liberty Township trustees Stan Nudell and Jason Rubin were overpaid $800 each in 2017 because fiscal officer Steve Shelton calculated their pay at the wrong rate, a state audit for the township says.
The mistake was among eight adverse findings in the audit, released Thursday, which covered 2016 and 2017. None of the other eight findings required repayment of money.
The township’s response to the mistake was to say the Ohio Legislature authorized new trustees and fiscal officers to receive additional compensation, but it was misapplied to two trustees who were not new. Nudell and Rubin “promptly repaid” the money during the audit.
The audit also showed that some receipts and disbursements were not posted into the right accounts, such as principal and interest payments being posted to public works and public safety. Shelton has indicated he will make a detailed review of such matters before the end of this year, the audit says.
The audit called the township’s bank reconciliations a “significant deficiency,” saying the township had issues at the end of 2017, such as Health Care Savings Account disbursements of $20,773 not being recorded in the accounting system. Health Care Savings Account disbursements of $34,707 were not recorded in the accounting system for 2016.
When asked about that finding, Trustee Jodi Stoyak said Shelton has corrected the reconciliation issue and noted that the eight findings are an improvement over the nine findings in the audit before that.
The new audit found that Shelton also did not submit income tax reports to the state related to township employees for a month in 2017 and three months in 2016. It resulted in the township having to pay interest to the state.
The township’s response was that the Ohio Department of Taxation switched the township from being a quarterly filer to a monthly filer in 2016.
The township also had negative balances in the general fund and police department fund at various times in 2016 and 2017, ranging as high as $173,370 in the general fund, another finding said.