Niles finally agrees to inventory its assets

By Jordan Cohen | October 4, 2018 at 12:09a.m.

NILES

Starting Tuesday, an asset-management company will begin working on an inventory of all city assets – the first such assessment in its history.

Niles has been in state-declared fiscal emergency four years, and completion of the inventory is viewed as essential for helping the city petition for release from the designation later this year.

The failure of the city to maintain such an inventory was cited by state auditors, who found the absence of either manual or computerized listings for all citywide assets “rendered monitoring and managing impossible.”

“It’s a key for getting us out from under fiscal emergency,” Mayor Steven Mientkiewicz said at council’s session Wednesday night.

The city is paying HCA Asset Management $61,500 to conduct the inventory, according to city Auditor Giovanne Merlo.

“They will inventory all assets and building infrastructure,” Merlo said, adding the inventory will provide an actual value in terms of capitalization and depreciation.

“They’ve agreed to a [completion] timetable of Dec. 1,” the auditor said.

The cost of the study falls well below original estimates that Mientkiewicz feared could have been as high as $100,000. The mayor said he expects to request removal from fiscal emergency with its completion.

The other essential for the city’s removal – approval of its latest recovery plan – was moved to a second reading. The plan is the eighth version since state Auditor Dave Yost declared Niles in fiscal emergency in October 2014.

Its third and final reading is expected to be approved at council’s next meeting later this month, and then submitted to the Financial Planning and Supervision Commission that has reviewed city finances since the declaration.

In one other item, council gave first reading to an ordinance that would repeal a moratorium against tattoo and body-piercing parlors within the city that has been in effect since 2001.

“Businesses that locate in the city will be in compliance with state law and licensed through the county health department,” said Terry Swauger, city law director.