July 23, 2008

County officials frustrated

Even a good idea poorly implemented can produce a disaster of epic proportions.

And as Wells County Council officials endeavored to meet with township officials on Tuesday evening to review their budgets, as House Bill 101 now requires, this year’s hearings stepped into the realm of the truly ridiculous.

Council members Peter Cole, Karolyna Farling, Jim Van Winkle, Todd Mahnensmith, LeRoy Cramer, Michael Kracium and Jim Oswalt found themselves increasingly frustrated throughout the evening, as the futility of the exercise became more and more evident.

Rumblings of discontent came even before the township representatives came before council, as county officials concluded the “regular portion” of their hearings with the presentation of the Emergency 911 (E911), Commissioners and Solid Waste budgets.

E911 and Solid Waste presented no obvious issues, however, included in the commissioners request was the local funding portion required to replace the two county bridges that have been going through the Federal Grant process over recent years. These are the bridges on County Road 400W over Rock Creek and County Road 900S over the Salamonie River.

While federal funding is providing 80 per cent of the funds required for these two projects, Wells County is expected to provide the other 20 per cent. In their 2009 requests, the commissioners have requested $275,000 for the Rock Creek bridge and $96,000 for the Salamonie River bridge.

Given that the only concrete information county council members have to work with in approving budgets for 2009 is that cuts are required, it seems highly unlikely that the county will have the funds available to allow these projects to proceed as planned.

Governor Daniels may want to reconsider his re-election advertisements that claim bridges are being built, at least until after more concrete budget figures have become available.

At this point, it seems that these two bridges will not be built as planned, due to lack of local funds.

With the final three regular county government department presentations behind them, county council members set forth into previously uncharted territory, as Wells County Public Library Director Stephanie Davis made the first of the new presentations required by House Bill 101.

As with all the other agencies at this year’s presentations, Davis was only able to present a budget based on what she applied for last year, in the hope that the library’s 2008 budget is eventually approved by state government officials.

Due to her experience in her position, which many of the township representatives who followed do not have, Davis was able to make a presentation that council members could at least follow, and ask questions about.

There was one shock however.

Council members had been under the impression that in reviewing the library’s budget, they had the power of veto if they did not approve of it. Unfortunately, this is only true if the budget involves an increased expenditure of more than four per cent.

Davis’s budget calls for a 3.98 per cent increase, and therefore council members can exert no real influence, should they feel the need.

This presentation therefore, was more an “information only” exercise.

Markle was the first town to make its presentation, and with the experience of clerk-treasurer Carolyn Hamilton and council president Tamra Boucher, it too was able to at least present a budget that made sense, given the limitations working from a “not yet approved” 2008 budget presents.

Hamilton noted that since 1978 she has prepared 17 of Markle’s 30 budgets, and this is the first time in her experience that she has not had reliable figures with which to work.

Council President Pete Cole was to later take this statement even further, noting that he has been involved in county budget preparation for 28 years, and he has never seen such a complete mess!

The real problems started when Poneto representatives Roy Schoeff (Clerk-Treasurer) and Finley Lane (President of Town Council) stepped into the hot seat, and the evening rapidly descended into farce from there, as Liberty Township (Diane Rockwell), Zanesville (Julie Christian), Jefferson Township (Richard and Caroline McCoy) and Vera Cruz (Mary Ann Bricker and Deb Klopfenstein) took their turns before council.

Lack of familiarity with county council budget procedures was one obvious problem that reared its head, and in the sense that the new laws put in place by House Bill 101 now forces county council and township representatives together at budget time, some sense behind the new laws is in evidence.

But, this year at least, that advantage is more than outweighed by the disadvantages. It is very difficult to get everyone on the same page if no one has the book to begin with.

Unsure of what exactly was required for this year, Zanesville’s Julie Christian and Jefferson Township’s Richard and Caroline McCoy have arranged meetings with DLGF officials at which they hope to be able to prepare their 2009 budgets.

Both meetings are scheduled for mid-August.

The problem here is, that the Wells County Council is supposed to approve the budgets before the end of July.

Vera Cruz not only does not have a 2008 budget approved from which it can work. It seems that state officials haven’t done their 2007 budget either.

Communication via computer is impossible for both Vera Cruz and Liberty, as they do not have a computer, and produce their budgets by hand.

Even if they did have a computer, it may not be helpful.

DLGF officials have recently sent (via email) the Wells County Auditor advising of a new form that townships were required to complete prior to their presentations to council, and two townships (Markle and Zanesville) also indicated that they received this memo.

Unfortunately, the form was not attached to the memo and it also is not yet available on the DLGF website.

Unavailability of required information, forms and supporting software has been a constant problem throughout the property tax assessment and billing process, and local officials are well past frustrated with them.

New software invariably costs more money, when it does eventually become available (and too often in this process, that has not been sufficiently in advance of deadlines to enable work to be completed in a timely fashion). This only serves to take funds away from other projects that need attention.

With most township representatives either confused or totally lost in terms of what they are required to bring before council, and the council members themselves not in possession of firm data with which they can establish a base budget, frustration continued to mount.

Council members felt that the time of everyone involved was being wasted by the process, as there is just too little information involved for anything concrete to be resolved.

While DLGF is advising everyone to base their 2009 budgets on 2008, the fact that no 2008 budgets have been approved by state officials means that the house is being built on unstable foundations.

Should state officials decide to decline one or more of the 2008 budgets after the 2009 budget based on these figures has been prepared, potentially everyone is back to square one.

Using identical budgets from year to year also does not facilitate “special spending,” and the problem that county council faces with our two bridges is a classic example of that.

Deteriorating roads (Governor Daniels re-election claims that roads also are being fixed, is also noted here) and other special projects within the county also face an uncertain future in the current environment.

Problems caused by the delays in producing tax bills also began to surface at the hearings last night.

Liberty Township’s Diane Rockwell advised that the township is now officially out of money and she will be spending today (Wednesday) phoning creditors begging them not to insist on payment of bills until at least January, 2009.

While none of the other townships have quite reached that point yet, several are rapidly approaching the edge of the cliff.

County officials stressed their appreciation to people who are paying their taxes in advance, using last year’s figures as a guide, and encourage others who haven’t yet done so, to come forward.

Without these funds, agencies will be forced to either borrow money (in which case they will be required to pay interest on the loans) or not pay their bills at all.

It is noted that while Allen and Huntington counties have already issued their property tax bills, these counties have omitted steps that should have been performed, and will face rework of some kind later on.

Wells County officials are endeavoring to adopt a thorough approach, getting as much as possible correct first time, to avoid even bigger problems later on.

Not an easy task in the current environment.

The budget hearings will continue Thursday, July 24, commencing at 6 p.m. in the Carnegie Annex on W. Washington Street.

frank@news-banner.com

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