Budget Commission Approves Chester Township’s Budget, but Not Geauga County’s
Budget Commission Hearings – August 26, 2024
Meeting Details: The Geauga County Budget Commission met in Special Session on Monday, August 26, 2024 at 9:00 am in the Auditor's Conference Room, 215 Main Street, Chardon, Ohio. The meeting was in person with a virtual option via MS Teams.
Meeting Attendance: Treasurer Chris Hitchcock, Auditor Chuck Walder, and Prosecutor Jim Flaiz.
Staff Attendance: Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Kristen Rine (virtual), Chief Deputy Auditor Ron Leyde, Deputy Auditors Tammy Most and Kristen Sinatra, and Fiscal Office Manager Pam McMahan.
Chester Township Staff: Township Administrator Mark Purchase (virtual).
County Staff: County Administrator Gerry Morgan, Assistant County Administrator Linda Burhenne, and Budget and Finance Manager Adrian Gorton.
Members of the Public: Geauga Times Courier Journalist Anastasia Nicholas, Geauga County Maple Leaf Journalist Ann Wishart, and this LWV Geauga Observer (all virtual).
The meeting was called to order at 9:02 am.
Observer Note: The Tax Budgets of Chester Township and Geauga County were not approved by the Budget Commission at the annual Tax Budget Hearings on August 19 and 20, 2024. The purpose of this Special Meeting of the Budget Commission was to reconvene the Tax Budget Hearings for these entities.
Chester Township Budget Hearing
Ms. Sinatra notified the Budget Commissioners that the Chester Township Trustees met on Friday August 23, and the Chester Trustees passed a Resolution to set up reserve funds as requested by the Budget Commission. Observer Note: More details about Chester’s initial Budget Hearing on August 19 can be found at the link above. Chester Administrator Mark Purchase stated that work has already begun on getting four reserve funds set up, and Mr. Walder clarified that four reserve funds would be for the general fund, the road department, the police department, and the fire department. Mr. Hitchcock asked how much each reserve fund would be, and Mr. Purchase said that the road reserve fund would be the largest at about $300,000-400,000, but specific amounts were not available yet. Mr. Purchase pledged to stay in touch with the Budget Commission and to provide numbers as they become available. Mr. Hitchcock accepted this, but he cautioned that if money is not added to the reserve funds, it should be given back to Chester taxpayers.
Mr. Walder said that the Budget Commission had to make two changes to the budget originally submitted by Chester Township. First, General Fund transfers out were increased by $4,500 to bring the 2024 transfers out into balance. Second, EMS Fund expenses were decreased by about $15,000 because statute requires that expenses cannot exceed 3% of the current appropriations.
The Budget Commissioners unanimously approved the 2025 Chester Township Budget as modified.
Geauga County Budget Hearing
Ms. Sinatra stated that no changes, requests, or suggestions have been received from Geauga County since the Budget Commission did not approve the County’s budget on August 19.
There was a great deal of back and forth about $10 million in ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) funding that the County planned to use to fund construction on the Courthouse expansion. Mr. Gorton said that construction on this project may have to stop unless he is able to certify that $10 million and create an encumbrance for it. Mr. Walder maintained his long-standing objection to using ARPA money to pay for the Courthouse project because he believes it may break ARPA rules and also it is very difficult from an accounting standpoint. Mr. Walder expressed the opinion that the $10 million should have been used to pay for safety forces instead. Observer Note: See the Observer Report for the 2025 County Commissioners’ Budget Hearings in May 2024 for more information on this matter.
Mr. Walder said that the County’s submitted budget predicts a carryover of around $4.7 million dollars, but it appears that the true amount will be “... closer to over $10 million, less than $25 million.” Mr. Gorton responded that the carryover stated in the budget was about $4.5 million, while the true amount would be approximately $8.5 million. Mr. Walder asked why $2.1 million in cuts to departmental funding requests were made by the County given that the predicted carryover balance of at least $4.5 million would more than cover those funding requests. Mr. Gorton responded that: “This goes back to the whole idea of trying to keep the estimated ending balance of the general fund as close as possible to what the actual is. I guess I felt, if I included and left that $2 million in there, that instead of my ending balance being $4.7 (million) it would be a lot less, $2.1 million less.” He added that cuts were made because there is an “... unknown financial future that we’re looking at, because the sales tax is definitely leveling off.” Mr. Gorton said that another reason the cuts were made was due to “... unknown nature of… how the ARPA (funding) was going to be handled, how much, you know, was actually going to be left, whether I was going to have to transfer money that I just had appropriated in other places and reappropriate it…. There was a lot of little nuanced decisions that went into that (the budget cuts).”
Mr. Walder felt that it was “... a little disingenuous to be learning for the first time, all of these little nuances when there were in depth budget conversations with Commissioners that quite frankly, I was sitting there and none of this was spoken and talked about.” He went on to say: “You commented at the budget hearing that you had unanimous approval of the Commissioners to take certain actions. I contacted a Commissioner. He denies that's true.” Mr. Walder also noted that it was stated at the County’s Budget Hearing on August 19 that the Chase building might be back in play for potential purchase by the County, and he said: “That is not anything that Commissioners have ever discussed in an open meeting. Nor has this Commissioner that I talked to been made aware that it's ever going to be back in play after looking at the report of that building.” He summed up by saying “I am not comfortable with all of the backstory conversations that are going on to build to a budget that we're supposed to be interrogating and interpreting.”
At this point discussion returned to funding the Courthouse project. Mr. Gorton said “... not certifying the $10 million (ARPA funding for Courthouse construction) and not admitting that the Commissioners have the right to move appropriations, I think, is detrimental to the finances of this County and in direct violation of everyone's oath of office in this room.” Mr. Flaiz responded: “If construction stops over there and you point the finger at us, I don't want to hear it because you have plenty of ways to pay bills over there. It's ridiculous that you need this 10 million dollars before January first, totally absurd to me. Go get it out of all the other funds that you've been hiding money in that we have the list of, but I am not going to allow or vote for a situation where you're clawing back money, because I do not trust the three of you (Mr. Gorton, Mr. Morgan and Ms. Burhenne), period.” Mr. Gorton stated that he has “... been told that legal action is not off the table” regarding this matter.
Mr. Walder took exception to Mr. Gorton’s statement regarding the Budget Commissioners’ oath of office: “I don't appreciate a non-elected bureaucrat lecturing us on what our oath is….” He went on to say: “I challenge whether or not you're conducting yourself in an open and accountable method. But you know, we can agree to disagree on it. I've now, I've taken my fill from you of being told what my job is.”
Mr. Flaiz asked what the Budget Commission should do with the County’s budget. Mr. Walder said the County hasn’t offered anything different since the Budget Hearing the previous week. Mr. Gorton stated that the Budget Commissioners said that they would be looking at the budget and making suggestions. Mr. Walder disagreed with this and said “I'm not going to do your job for you. I'm not going to do your budget for you. This budget's far too complicated to do, what we do for Auburn, what we do for Chester, but at the end of the day, those two entities reached out in the last week and made sure that we were prepared for this meeting. Silence from you.”
The discussion devolved even further at this point. Mr. Gorton accused Mr. Walder of making a budget request to hire someone to do maintenance work on a County building, which Mr. Gorton said was illegal. Mr. Walder disagreed that this was illegal, saying nothing in ORC prevents him from maintaining the building. Mr. Gorton said that an Ohio Attorney General opinion says County Commissioners are the ones responsible for maintaining buildings and other departments may not do this. Mr. Flaiz countered: “That's not what the Attorney General opinion says, and you are responsible for maintaining buildings, and you have totally abandoned that responsibility, the Commissioners’ Office, I mean, you've completely abandoned it.” Mr. Walder and Mr. Flaiz then detailed some of the issues regarding maintenance they have noticed in County buildings on the Square Observer Note: See the Observer Report for the 2025 County Commissioners’ Budget Hearings for Mr. Walder’s description of maintenance that the County has allegedly not done in his office.
Ms. Burhenne asked what needs to be done “to put all this aside” to get to an approved budget. Mr. Walder answered: “Stop lying to us. As a group, stop lying to us. Stop telling us that you're coming here for one purpose, or you're asking for our input on our budgets, when the bottom line is you're going to hack them away anyway. Stop doing that. Stop wasting our time. I've been submitting a budget for six years. Every year I've said the same thing: it's an academic exercise, because as soon as I walk out of there after answering every question that's posed to me, someone hacks away at my budget, not knowing anything about what my statutory duty is, not knowing what my requirements are, but because he does the budget, he's now an expert at everything, and that's just not right. Why would you cut someone's budget, including salaries, and not have the courtesy to pick up the telephone, call the guy who's statutorily required to do the work, and say, we've got a problem. Why wouldn't you do that? Any other human would, but not this group.”
Mr. Hitchcock stated that: “My concern has always been for the budget practices, which have been pretty much a joke.” He observed that the County’s 2023 estimated ending balance was $341,000 whereas the actual ending balance was $11.7 million, which he called “horrible budgeting.” He said that “If we treat the County like we treat all the other entities… we would be in a position to take some of that money and give it back to the taxpayers.” Mr. Hitchcock noted that the 2024 estimated ending balance “is supposedly $4.5 million, but Adrian (Mr. Gorton) you’ve already indicated it will be significantly larger than that to the tune of 8.5 million dollars.” Mr. Gorton agreed that this was accurate, and said “... the (Budget) Commission has not provided me with an endorsed method by which to rectify that (the actual ending balances far exceeding the estimated ending balances).” Mr. Walder replied: “Nor does the Commission have to. It’s your job to budget. It’s our job to test it. The testing is failing.”
Discussion continued at length regarding precise budget cuts that were made, and numerous points mentioned above were reiterated. Ultimately, the Budget Commissioners voted to close the public hearing, and no action was taken regarding the County’s budget.
No Action Taken on County Budget
Regular Business
An increase in special revenue for Hambden Township was approved. Hambden’s new special revenue fund total was $3,313,552.32, and the total revenue was certified as $4,683,237.69.
Public Comment
Public comment was solicited, but none were offered.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:58 am.
Next Meeting: A second special meeting was scheduled for Friday, August 30, 2024. The next regular meeting will be Monday, September 16, 2024 at 10:00 am. The Monday, September 2, 2024 meeting was canceled due to the Labor Day holiday.
Observer: Sarah McGlone
Editor and Reviewer: Gail Roussey
Submitted: 9/12/24
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