Budget Commission Regular Meeting – April 15, 2024
Meeting Details: The Geauga County Budget Commission met in Regular Session on Monday, April 15, 2024 at 10:00 am in the Auditor's Conference Room, 215 Main Street, Chardon, Ohio. This meeting was in person with a virtual option via MS Teams.
Meeting Attendance: Treasurer Chris Hitchcock and Auditor Chuck Walder. Prosecutor Jim Flaiz was absent, which Mr. Walder said was because Mr. Flaiz was called to court.
Staff Attendance: Chief Deputy Auditor Ron Leyde, Deputy Auditors Tammy Most and Kristen Sinatra, and Fiscal Office Manager Pam McMahan. Chief Compliance Officer Kate Jacob attended virtually.
County Staff: Geauga County Budget and Finance Manager Adrian Gorton (virtual).
Members of the Public: This LWV Geauga Observer (virtual).
The meeting was called to order at 10:07 am.
Minutes: Minutes from the Regular Meeting on April 1, 2024 were approved and are available here.
The following Revenue Certifications were approved:
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Russell Township - Amendment #3. $2,466,250.43 in the general fund, $9,556,407.89 in special revenue funds, and $2,729,783.65 in capital project funds for a total of $14,752,441.97.
Russell’s amendment certified increases in 1) the Fire FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) Grant Fund of $47,557.30, 2) the Road Retirement Reserve Fund of $40,000, and 3) the Police Retirement Reserve Fund of $30,000. It also de-certified revenues in the Road Reserve Fund and the Road Vehicle Reserve Fund in the total amount of $237,609. It was noted that these de-certifications reflect that contributions are not being made to these reserve funds for this year because the money is needed to pay for paving; these funds are not being eliminated.
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Claridon Township - Amendment #3. $951,140.59 in the general fund and $1,955,796.27 in special revenue funds for a total of $2,906,936.86.
Claridon’s amendment reflected a $190,000 increase in the road and bridge fund brought about by the sale of a plow truck. Mr. Walder said that this plow truck was originally purchased with ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) funds and that he thinks there is no requirement to hold property purchased with ARPA funds for any specific amount of time before it is sold. Ms. Sinatra noted that Clairdon is going through an audit right now, and this will be verified during that process.
The following Revenue Certifications were re-signed:
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Russell Township - Amendment #2. $2,466,250.43 in the general fund, $9,438,850.59 in special revenue funds, and $2,967,392.65 in capital project funds for a total of $14,872,493.67.
Russell’s amendment was originally approved on April 1, but $30,000 was inadvertently left out
of the capital projects funds total. The resulting increase was added to the corrected certificate,
which was then re-signed.
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Hambden Township - Amendment #1. $1,051,603.36 in the general fund, $3,214,672.32 in special revenue funds, and $318,082.01 in capital project funds for a total of $4,584,357.69.
Hambden’s amendment was originally approved on February 28, but the planned reduction of fire levy tax collection unintentionally doubled. The corrected certificate was re-signed. Observer Note: Hambden’s Resolution to mitigate its inside millage windfall due to the 2023 property revaluation by decreasing fire levy tax collection was approved at the December 4, 2023 Budget Commission Meeting.
Hambden making this error using UAN (Uniform Accounting Network) software led to further discussion about UAN. Mr. Walder asked if Auditor’s Office Staff had heard anything about County entities undergoing audits using UAN to make electronic funds transfers rather than writing checks. Ms. Sinatra said that she hasn’t heard anything specifically about that. Mr. Walder stated that at least two townships have inquired about this capability, and he asked his staff to research this matter. He noted that UAN fees are already paid electronically and said he wants to know “What about all the other checks? Can you just go paperless to avoid check fraud?”
General Discussion
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2024 Tax Mitigation - At the April 1, 2024 Budget Commission Meeting it was decided that potential correspondence to County entities regarding any recommendations that the Budget Commissioners might have regarding possible mitigation of taxpayer burden caused by the property revaluation would be discussed at this meeting. However, due to Mr. Flaiz’s absence, the matter of potential 2024 tax mitigation will be considered at the next Budget Commission meeting. Mr. Walder directed Ms. Most and Ms. Sinatra to prepare the Schedule B forms that County entities need to work on their tax budgets as they normally would, without any mitigation included. He also asked them to create a pro forma version of Schedule B; this version will have a column to calculate potential mitigation amounts. Mr. Walder explained that, if and when the Budget Commission decides to make a mitigation recommendation, the pro forma Schedule B would be sent to County entities along with an explanatory letter.
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Letter from West Geauga Schools - Mr. Walder said that Mr. Flaiz wanted to talk about “...the West G letter.” Mr. Hitchcock said that they should wait to discuss this when Mr. Flaiz is present, so Mr. Walder said that they would table the matter for now and add it to the agenda for the next Budget Commission meeting. Observer Note: See the Public Comment section below for more information about the West G letter.
Public Comment
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This observer asked what the West G letter was about. Mr. Walder said that West Geauga Schools sent out a letter in early April to all district residents regarding what happened at their February 28, 2024 Budget Hearing. He stated that the Budget Commissioners will discuss what if any response they will have to that letter.
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This observer asked if there was any news regarding the issues that came up at the Board of Developmental Disabilities' Budget Review. There was not. Mr. Gorton confirmed that the Board of County Commissioners’ (BOCC) Budget Hearings will be May 7, 14, and 21, and he offered to email a copy of the schedule to this observer. Observer Note: The BOCC Budget Hearings schedule was received by this observer from Mr. Gorton via email on April 16. This schedule states that “Metzenbaum” (Board of Developmental Disabilities) will not be appearing at the BOCC Budget Hearings. In a subsequent email sent April 17, Mr. Gorton explained the rationale behind some departments such as the Board of Developmental Disabilities not being scheduled for BOCC Budget Hearings as follows: “With limited time, having the budget hearings in the spring instead of the fall, the Commissioners wanted to focus in more on certain departments. Several departments do not show much fluctuation in their year to year budgets and they decided to forgo hearings for several of them. We do have an ‘Other Departments’ time slot that we have kept open in case there is an extraordinary budget request from one of these departments that ends up warranting a hearing time.”
The meeting was adjourned at 10:22 am.
Next Meeting: Regular Meeting on Monday, May 6, 2024 at 10:00 am in the Auditor’s Conference Room at 215 Main Street, Chardon, Ohio.
Observer: Sarah McGlone
Editor: Anne Ondrey
Reviewer: Gail Roussey
Submitted: 4/23/24
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