City working to cut $500,000 to balance 2012 budget

The finance committee of the Hillsboro City Council and the new Hillsboro administration will be holding weekly meetings until they are able to cut more than half a million dollars from the 2012 budget. 

The committee met Wednesday in council chambers to discuss the proposed budget and to discuss the application for funding for a city performance audit. 

Safety and Service Director Richard Giroux said that he, Hillsboro Mayor Drew Hastings and Hillsboro Auditor Gary Lewis have been taking a hard look at the budget this week, and that he hopes to have preliminary figures to council  next week. 

When the initial budget was submitted, with all requests from department heads, it was approximately "$700,000 in the red," Giroux said. 

Lewis said that they have been able to take it down to approximately $550,000 and that "it's gone down from there." 

Finance committee chairperson Pete Pence said that the committee wanted to meet once a week until the budget was finalized, and it was suggested that they will meet every Wednesday. 

"The city auditor, after crunching additional numbers, gave a much more crisper estimate of what we were in the red, about $550,000," Giroux said. "Just today and last night, going over those numbers ... we've identified about $400,000 plus or minus on how to address $400,000 of that $550,000 so far. So I'm very confident by next week's meeting we should have a much better picture of what's going on and provide council with those numbers, so that you have a good idea of where we're at, what we're looking to do. I can also say that the cuts and the adjustments in order to provide council with a balanced budget, it will be very thin, but it will be a functional and an operational budget." 

Giroux said that there are other issues that the city will need to address "over a period of time, so the budget process is going to fluctuate from meeting to meeting, on a weekly basis, as we get new numbers and new adjustments are being made. But I am very confident that the mayor will be able to present a very well-balanced budget, in the black, by the time that council wants to approve it." 

There was no specific discussion on the budget numbers, such as what had been requested or what might be cut. Between January and February 2011, the city cut more than $400,000 from the proposed budget in order to achieve the balanced budget that was ultimately passed by council. 

Council member Dave Shoemaker asked if a week was enough time for Giroux to have figures ready to present, since he had only been in the office for three days. Giroux said that he appreciated the consideration, but that he wanted council to have numbers as soon as possible. 

"We all know the budget is the lifeblood of the city," Giroux said. "Even if the council has preliminary numbers, at least you can see some sort of direction we're going in. My information from the mayor is that there needs to be a very close relationship on the development of this as we go forward." 

Hastings said, "I'm going to make sure we're really, really solid on these. I want to make sure that when we finally get them to you (that) ... we've done our homework." 

"I think council will be very pleased with the overall work product when it's complete," Giroux said.

Pence thanked Giroux and Hastings for the report and said that the committee looked forward to working with them. 

"However, the committee can help in the process, we'd be glad to do that," Pence said. 

The committee discussed whether or not they wanted to move forward in obtaining a performance audit from the Ohio Auditor's Office and if they should apply for the funding to cover the audit. 

The finance committee had met with auditors from Ohio Auditor of State David Yost's Office on Nov. 7 and discussed the options available and how to fund a possible performance audit with the office. The city can apply for financial assistance for the audit at the beginning of the year, and Pence said that currently the committee and council need to determine the scope of the audit they would like to have and what the city can afford. For city performance audits, auditors can examine practices and department functions citywide or take a very narrow look at a small number of departments, based on the individual city's need. Pence previously told council that applications for funding would be due sometime in the first part of the year.

On Wednesday, Pence said that with all of the changes that the new administration was making, it may not be a good time for a performance audit and that having it conducted in another year might be more efficient. However, he asked if the city wanted to proceed to try to obtain LEAP (Leverage for Efficiency, Accountability and Performance) funds to cover the cost of the audit. 

"The only way you would really get a benefit from the performance audit is if things stay consistent throughout the year and they have an equal evaluation of the departments," Pence said. "We can apply for the funds and then if we get them we can decide what we want to do. Or we can not apply for the funds and put it off to a later date. I personally would like to see the performance audit done." 

Giroux suggested that the city apply for the funds since they are available, and they can determine whether they want to proceed with the audit at a later date. He also informed council that he was working on an assessment of the city's financial and operational state. 

"One of the things that we're in the process of doing is doing a comprehensive city assessment, both operationally and finance-wise, to really have a good understanding of where the city of Hillsboro stands or what its status is currently," Giroux said. 

By having a good understanding of where the city stands, Giroux said, that will help council and the administration determine where and how they want to move forward. He said that he hopes to have the assessment completed within the next 30 days. When he presents the results of the assessment, Giroux said, if council is satisfied with "the scope of the work product as to what is really happening," they can make a determination then if they want to proceed with the performance audit as a comparison.

The committee voted 3-0 to have the administration proceed with applying for the grants to fund the performance audit. 

"We've got a grant-savvy bunch on staff," Hastings said.  

According to a letter from the state auditor's office that Pence presented to the committee, the overall performance audit would cost approximately $63,500, with 10 percent added for follow-up work, for a total cost of $69,850 needed in LEAP funds. A breakdown of the audit and costs by department shows: financial management and administration, $22,000; human resources, $10,500; public safety, $10,000; public works, $21,000.

Just prior to the finance committee meeting, council's street and safety committee met to discuss a request for a left-turn signal at the intersection of North High Street and Harry Sauner Road. The request was brought to council during their December meeting by the manager of Save-A-Lot, which recently moved to the shopping center located behind McDonald's. 

"It's an issue that needs to be addressed," Pence said. "We need to encourage traffic flow, not discourage it." 

Hastings said that he was hearing that the shopping center was going to be filling up with tenants very soon, and it's a matter the city should resolve quickly. 

Committee chairperson Brian Waller said that the administration should contact the Ohio Department of Transportation about the costs and if there would be any effect on the traffic flow. Giroux said that there may be grant dollars available from ODOT to fund it and that he would look into it. 

Council President Lee Koogler suggested the matter stay in committee while Giroux contacts ODOT. 

In addition to the council members, Hastings, Giroux and Lewis, Hillsboro's new deputy law director Laura Curliss was also in attendance at the meeting, along with some city employees.