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ST. MARYS - St. Marys officials were honored with their third Auditor of State Award in four years at the start of Monday's regular council meeting.
City staff and councilors were recognized with the prestigious award after achieving a clean audit report.
The award was presented to city auditor Doug Riesen by Joe Braden, director of regional liaisons, from the state auditor's office.
To win the Auditor of State Award eligible candidates must have "clean" audit reports that meet these criteria:
Only a select few of the 6,000 total entities audited by the state are eligible for the award, Braden said.
"This award represents the hard work of all of your city employees here in the city of St. Marys, and the financial staff who make an effort each day to attain accounting excellence," Braden said. "I want to recognize all the council members here. I want to recognize the mayor, recognize your city services director, all of them that have done an outstanding job watching over every dollar here in the city of St. Marys."
The Auditor of State Award is presented to local governments and school districts that meet the completion of a financial audit with the following criteria of a clean audit report:
• The entity must file financial reports with the state auditor by the statutory due date, without extension, via the Hinkle System on the GAAP accounting basis.
• The audit report does not contain any findings for recovery, material citations, material weaknesses, significant deficiencies, Uniform Guidance (Single Audit) findings, or questioned costs.
• The entity's management letter contains no comments related to: ethics referrals; questioned costs less than the threshold per Uniform Guidance; lack of timely report submission; bank reconciliation issues; failure to obtain a timely Single Audit in accordance with Uniform Guidance; findings for recovery less than $500; and public meetings or public records issues.
• The entity has no other financial or other concerns.
Also on Monday, councilors amended an ordinance that would raise trash rates on its second reading.
Councilors voted 5-2 to change the ordinance that would raise resident's monthly trash fees from $9.95 to $28 from a regular ordinance to an emergency ordinance. This means if passed at their next meeting, the rates would go into effect on May 1, instead of June 1, as originally proposed.
Councilors John Lunz and Erin Buchanan opposed the amendment. The change was initiated by councilor John Bubp, and seconded by councilor Michael Aquaro Jr.
"Our (refuse) fund is in the red, currently. If we can gain one extra month to help pay that down, I think it would help. So the emergency language, folks, means that we would have a third reading on April 13th, and then, instead of a waiting period of 30 days, we could enact it, and have it go into effect May 1st instead of June 1st," Bubp said. "So we'd catch an extra month. I think we need that, so that we can get this fund to be good standing."
Safety services director Greg Foxhoven said he and Mayor Joe Hurlburt Jr. support the amendment.
"Our goal all along, (when) we started this process with the two additional cost of services studies that were conducted, was to have this in place by January 1st. We recognized how desperately we needed to do this," Foxhoven said. "If you recall, I mean we started this whole process last September with the hopes of having it in place by January 1st. That didn't happen for various reasons, and so we are in the red. When I met with the auditor's office earlier today, at 3 p.m., we were in the red $156,000. It will help us. There's no doubt about it (that) starting this rate increase a month early will certainly help us make that deficit more manageable."
The emergency ordinance would set monthly trash fees at $28 for city residents; $20 per month for those 65 and up; and $31 a month for out-of-town residential customers. In addition, they proposed an additional monthly fee of $3.50 for each extra cart.
For commercial customers, the ordinance would set a monthly rate of $86.13 for a 1-yard dumpster; $108.05 for a 1 1/2-yard dumpster; $130.46 for a 2-yard dumpster; $221.65 for a 4-yard dumpster; and $328.61 for a 6-yard dumpster.
The discounted price for senior citizens would not be automatic. Those that qualify would need to bring their ID to the city utility office to have it applied.
When asked on Monday, Foxhoven wasn't sure when seniors could start coming in to claim their discounted rate, but said city officials will push out information on social media soon clarifying exactly when they can come in.
"I think she said she has to give the information (about senior residents) to the billing company by the 14th of the month for it to apply to that month," he said. "So there is going to be a cutoff, so it's going to be a hectic time, and we'll do our best to help. We'll get through it. (The difficulties) will pass."
At least five votes are needed to pass the emergency ordinance.
Councilors then went into an executive session to discuss personnel, with Police Chief Lucas Turpin and other officers present. No action was anticipated following.
They meet next at 6:30 p.m. April 13 in council chambers.
