West Central Reporter

Christian County Audit/Finance/Purchasing Committee met March 16.

Here is the minutes provided by the Committees:

Present: Becky Edwards, Chairman, Aaron Allen –Vicki McMahon—Matt Wells—Paul Schmitz Absent: None Others present: Tim Carlson, Betty Asmussen, Julie Mayer, Chad Coady, Seth McMillan, Rich Hooper, Iris Crites, Adam Mathis, Tom Wall and Jan Bland.

The Finance Committee met on Thursday, March 16, 2017 at 6:30 p.m. in the County Board Meeting Room, second floor Christian County Courthouse, Taylorville, Illinois. The purpose of the meeting was to address agenda items and any other matters properly brought before the committee. Attendance was taken and Finance Chairman Becky Edwards noted a quorum. There were no public comments.

Claims

The committee members reviewed and signed all claims. A motion was made by Paul Schmitz and seconded by Becky Edwards to approve the claims as presented for March. The motion carried.

Christian County Public Transportaion

Susan Love, Transportation Director spoke to the Committee about the possible expansion route to Springfield. They have had many requests such as going to doctor appointments and other types of appointments. They will be studying the viability of the expansion. A ridership report was also submitted for review showing December with 64 riders and January down a bit at 45 riders. She also presented an Intergovernmental Agreement and Ordinance for the FY 7/1/2017 through 6/30/2018. This is a standard agreement for the expenditure of the Federal Section 5311 and Downstate Public Transportation Funds. CEFS Economic Opportunity Corporation manages the Central Illinois Public Transit for Christian County as well as several other adjoining counties. A motion was made by Aaron Allen and seconded by Vicki McMahon to adopt the Intergovernmental Agreement and Resolution as submitted. The motion carried with one opposed.

Mobile Home Tax Sale Certificate Of Purchase

Treasurer Betty Asmussen presented Resolution R2017 TR 005 to adopt pursuant to the public auction purchase of taxes for a mobile home to Stephanie J. Ashlock in the amount of $695.00. The County shall receive $250.00 for the return of the certificate of purchase. There is no real estate involved in this transaction. A motion was made by Matt Wells and seconded by Vicki McMahon to adopt R2017 TR 005. The motion carried.

2016 Audit Review

Rich Hooper, Iris Noblet-Crites and Adam Mathis attended the meeting and distributed copies of the 2016 Audit. Rich Hooper made references to various pages noting the responsibilities and procedures of the County Board and the Auditors. Based on the risk assessments the auditors record the opinion. An item of concern was discovered in Item b) (Page 92) relating to the payroll withholding and other payroll related payments during 2016 that were not submitted to the applicable agencies/agents. This item of concern was the “failure to make a proper federal tax deposit ” resulting in a penalty in the amount of $12,806 (which the Board was not aware of) when the County Clerk failed to make the appropriate payroll tax deposits for January, 13, January 27, January 29 and February 10, 2016. These payroll deposits were paid on February 22, 2016 using an account known as an “agency account or an in/out account” that takes in money from the employee deductions such as social security, federal/state taxes, and any other deductions that may be taken from their checks (which then should go right back out to all the various entities collecting those funds). And although the County Clerk was told to pay the $12,806 fine several times by the Auditors, it was not paid until August, 2016. A claim has not been received from the County Clerk to repay this money nor has it been discussed where this money will come from.

Further there appears to be an over-payment/under payment of IMRF funds that have still not been reconciled. (Please see Page 92, Item c)).

This information created a lot of questions from most of the committee members. Other issues were also mentioned. Questions will be or have been referred to the States Attorney for action.

Finally, the Auditors announced that the final deficit number is for 2016 was $149,248 and would have been $491,648.00 had the County not received $342,400 from Ameren.

The Health Department no longer needs a single audit and is included in the County audit. Mr. Hooper will attend the full County Board meeting and will review his findings again with the full Board.

Office Supplies

Discussion was held about the office supplies with a request from Becky Edwards that we form a committee (hoping to utilize employees input) to start working toward consolidating/reducing the amount of dollars spent on office supplies within the next six months. A motion was made by Becky Edwards and seconded by Paul Schmitz to create a department head/employee committee to research and brainstorm how to consolidate office purchases and have a central distribution location. The final discussion was about the request in 2016 by the Audit/Finance Committee who recommended in the Memo for the FY2017 Budget Hearings “that you make every effort to reduce your budgets by 10%”. I prepared a spreadsheet showing the total number of dollars appropriated to each department from 2015 thru 2017 with the last two columns showing what the county could have saved had the budget been reduced by 10% in 2017 as requested by the Audit/Finance Committee. (Each board member should have a copy of this spreadsheet.) As you can see, there were none that achieved 10% and a few that reduced their budget minimally or increased their budget.

Amend 2017 Budget By Reducing 5% This Year

Accordingly, Becky Edwards made a motion to amend the 2017 budget requiring the elected officials of each department to reduce their budget by 5%. Vicki McMahon seconded the motion – the motion was carried by Becky Edwards, Matt Wells, and Vicki McMahon with Aaron Allen and Paul Schmitz voting “no” to move it forward to the Board for approval.

A motion was made by Paul Schmitz and seconded by Matt Wells to adjourn. The motion carried.

http://www.christiancountyil.com/2017minutes/AFP03162017.pdf