Friday, September 29th, 2006

Counties may have to pay federal penalty

By Timothy Cox
Mercer County Commissioners were warned Thursday that the county could end up having to pay a federal penalty due to the high error rate in food stamp cases across Ohio.
The news came despite the fact that Mercer County annually ranks among the top counties statewide for maintaining low error rates, county Department of Job and Family Services (DJFS) Director Dale Borger said.
An e-mail from the DJFS Directors Association to all 88 county DJFS directors warned of plans to penalize county offices for financial mistakes. Errors can occur due to clerical miscues by case workers or through fraud by food stamp clients, Borger said.
Ohio reportedly has exceeded the 6 percent error threshold set by the federal government the past two years.
Mercer County currently has an error rate of 0.93 percent, among the best in the state. Auglaize County has an error rate of 6.75 percent. Auglaize County DJFS Director Mike Morrow was not available for comment this morning.
"Ohio Department of Job and Family Services intends to hold each county liable financially for their share of the overall statewide error penalty," the e-mail from Loretta Adams said. "The final decision by ODJFS will impact county general funds in the future."
That means any monetary penalty would have to be paid from local tax coffers, not the state and federal money that largely runs the local DJFS office.
The situation still is developing and there are no firm answers at this point, Borger told commissioners. He speculated that any penalties would "far exceed" the actual cash amount of the errors.
Borger urged commissioners to contact the County Commissioners Association of Ohio. That group likely is formulating a plan to deal with the issue, he said.
The error rates are based on the amount of money lost to mistakes. That means Mercer County's 0.93 percent rate equals 93 cents out of every $100 paid out for food stamps was erroneous. Only a small fraction of total cases are reviewed to detect errors, Borger said. The findings are then multiplied to cover the entire caseload.
Rates in four of Ohio's largest counties all exceeded the 6 percent error level. Those included Cuyahoga, Franklin, Hamilton and Lucas counties. Stark County has the highest error rate at 13.77 percent.
In the West Central Ohio region, Van Wert has a rate of 1.45 percent and Darke County had an error rate of 0 percent in the 24 cases sampled by the state.
Local officials likely will learn more about the situation after the federal fiscal year begins Oct. 1, Borger said.
Additional online stories on this date
NEW BREMEN - The first of two businesses looking to set up shop in the Bunker Hill Industrial Park received approval for its proposed plat when the New Bremen Planning Commission met Thursday night. [More]
The Celina volleyball team is past the halfway point of the Western Buckeye League season and the Green and White have yet to lose a league contest. [More]
Subscriber and paid stories on this date
Celina school bus drivers, custodians and other classified union employees are working without a contract since theirs expired three months ago.
Th
NEW BREMEN - New Bremen Planning Commission on Thursday approved the final plat of the Cardinal Subdivision with some stipulations.
The subdivision
ST. MARYS -  Adult education classes are probably not in the future of Tri Star, the advisory board was told Thursday night.
"We don't have the comp
ST. HENRY - Village residents enjoying the grassy openness and walking paths in St. Henry's South Park now can take a seat in the new gazebo.
Village employee Bob Borgerding envisioned the entire layout of the gazebo before drafting a preliminary sketch and then constructing the entire structure.
Planners favor triplex as home replacement
Celina Planning Commission members gave the go-ahead for two projects Thursday, including a new Cingular Wireless cell phone tower and a triplex that will replace a home that has fallen into serious disrepair.
WAPAKONETA - Four area residents arrested during drug raids this year appeared in Auglaize County Common Pleas Court recently:
•A bench warrant w
A St. Marys teen has pleaded guilty to charges he fled from law officers in July and crashed a car into a home while driving drunk.
Travis Paulus,
MARIA STEIN - The Marion Local Flyers did what no other team has done this year - twice in fact - but they still didn't have enough to beat the Versailles Tigers.
A week after suffering a heart-wrenching loss to Elida to lose a portion of the lead in the Western Buckeye League girls soccer title race, Celina went back into the fire facing always-tough Ottawa-Glandorf just to stay a match back in the league standings.
COLDWATER - The Coldwater Cavalier volleyball team posted their first Midwest Athletic Conference win of the season as they overcame a sluggish first game and went on to steam roll the Parkway Panthers 26-24, 25-19, 25-16 on Thursday night at Coldwater High School.
Compiled by Ryan Hines
and Gary R. Rasberry
The postseason for boys golf got underway on Thursday as teams in Divisions II and III headed to sectional tournaments.