Lewis addresses allegation auditor's office is underreporting funds WATCH THE VIDEO
Lead Summary
By
Brandy Chandler-brandychandler@gmail.com
At a time when the city of Hillsboro has struggled to cut expenses to balance its budget to avoid a potential deficit, city auditor Gary Lewis said he takes "offense" and "will not tolerate" recent allegations made by an individual that his office is hiding money.
During his report to the Hillsboro City Council during its monthly meeting March 14, Lewis said that "rumor and propaganda" was being spread regarding the city's financials.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I take it very seriously and I take offense when someone makes the accusation that my office has been hiding money," Lewis said. "Last week that individual spread that type of rumor by mouth and on the Internet stating I have been underreporting carryover balances by approximately $1 million for the past five years. I can assure you that nothing can be further from the truth."
Lewis did not identify the individual, and did not indicate if it was an elected official or a private citizen.
"This individual erroneously tried to compare straight line end-of-year cash balances to gap-converted end-of-year values that include many more calculations such as loan amortization, equipment depreciation, property values, as well as end-of-year cash balances ," Lewis said. "Rather than looking at page 14 of the city's basic financial statement. This person should have been looking at page 16 at the non-gap actual budgetary basis numbers. By looking at the wrong numbers, this person was literally making an apples to oranges comparison."
Lewis told council that he is always willing to answer questions on the city's financial or discuss perceived inconsistencies.
"My office is open to anyone who might have a question about the city's finances," Lewis said, "and it is very disappointing this individual did not take advantage of this, but instead opted to engage in rumor and propaganda. I will not stand idly by and allow such statements to go unchallenged."
Council had no reaction to the report from the auditor. Lewis asked that council take a vote to accept his report, which was accepted 7-0.
In February, council passed the 2011 budget after an estimated $400,000 was cut in order for it to balance. There will be a carryover of a projected $70,000 into the 2012 budget.
In other business, council:
• Voted 7-0 to increase appropriations in the water improvement fund in the amount of $120,000. Lewis, who introduced the legislation, said it was necessary due to an "oversight on a project that was begun at the latter stages of 2010." Lewis said it covers the water line replacement project on Highland Drive. Lewis said the funds were there, as reflected in the fund report, "we just did not get it appropriated when we passed our permanent budget."
At a time when the city of Hillsboro has struggled to cut expenses to balance its budget to avoid a potential deficit, city auditor Gary Lewis said he "takes offense" and "will not tolerate" recent allegations made by an individual that his office is hiding money.
During his report to the Hillsboro City Council during its monthly meeting March 14, Lewis said that "rumor and propaganda" were being spread regarding the city's finances.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I take it very seriously, and I take offense when someone makes the accusation that my office has been hiding money," Lewis said. "Last week, that individual spread that type of rumor by mouth and on the Internet stating I have been underreporting carryover balances by approximately $1 million for the past five years. I can assure you that nothing can be further from the truth."
Lewis did not identify the individual and did not indicate if it was an elected official or a private citizen.
"This individual erroneously tried to compare straight line end-of-year cash balances to GAAP-converted (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) end-of-year values that include many more calculations such as loan amortization, equipment depreciation, property values, as well as end-of-year cash balances," Lewis said. "Rather than looking at page 14 of the city's basic financial statement, this person should have been looking at page 16 at the non-gap actual budgetary basis numbers. By looking at the wrong numbers, this person was literally making an apples-to-oranges comparison."
Lewis told council that he is always willing to answer questions on the city's finances or discuss perceived inconsistencies.
"My office is open to anyone who might have a question about the city's finances," Lewis said, "and it is very disappointing this individual did not take advantage of this, but instead opted to engage in rumor and propaganda. I will not stand idly by and allow such statements to go unchallenged."
Council had no reaction to the report from the auditor. Lewis asked that council take a vote to accept his report, which was accepted 7-0.
In February, council passed the 2011 budget after an estimated $400,000 was cut in order for it to balance. There will be a carryover of a projected $70,000 into the 2012 budget.
Hillsboro Mayor Dick Zink told council that as of March 14 the city was, "going house to house to check the downspouts and we'll be checking sump pumps too. I think this ordinance was drafted, and it wasn't to cause a hardship on the real estate people to sell houses ... Now we'll be going door to door and the people who are not in compliance will be notified, and we're going to take that route since this ordinance is going to be killed."
Also during Monday's meeting, council member Dave Shoemaker, chairperson of the utilities committee made a recommendation that council withdraw from consideration an ordinance that sought to require inspections of property at a point of sale regarding infiltration or overflows into the sanitary sewer lines.
The ordinance had been introduced during council's February meeting, and sought to require any property owners in the city of Hillsboro and any Hillsboro sewer customers shall obtain a certificate of compliance from the city prior to closing on the sale of a property. Members of council stated they felt the matter had needed more study. Area Realtors had expressed concern over the matter because Hillsboro Law Director Fred Beery said that the legislation could prevent the sale of some properties if a certificate is not obtained and if an infiltration problem is not corrected.
The ordinance had been introduced during council's February meeting, and sought to require any property owners in the city of Hillsboro and any Hillsboro sewer customers shall obtain a certificate of compliance from the city prior to closing on the sale of a property. Members of council stated they felt the matter had needed more study. Area Realtors had expressed concern over the matter because Hillsboro Law Director Fred Beery said that the legislation could prevent the sale of some properties if a certificate is not obtained and if an infiltration problem is not corrected.
Many homes in Hillsboro, Shoemaker and safety and service director Ralph Holt said, have downspouts, pipes and runoffs that feed into the city's sanitary sewer system. Because the essentially clean rainwater is then processed at the wastewater treatment plant as sewerage, the city is treating hundreds of thousands of gallons more water than it needs to be.
During a utilities committee meeting held Feb. 21 members of the Highland County Board of Realtors met with the committee and after much discussion, the committee voted to recommend the ordinance be withdrawn.
However, Holt said that the city did not need the ordinance to proceed with inspections on an individual basis.
During Monday's meeting Shoemaker recommended that "the ordinance be killed" and that "we proceed no further."
At the recommendation of city law director Fred Beery, Shoemaker made a motion to table the ordinance indefinitely, which was seconded by Peter Pence, and passed 7-0. Beery said the only way the ordinance could come before council again is brought up by the committee, or by a unanimous vote from council.
In other business, council:
• Voted 7-0 to increase appropriations in the water improvement fund in the amount of $120,000. Lewis, who introduced the legislation, said it was necessary due to an "oversight on a project that was begun at the latter stages of 2010." Lewis said it covers the water line replacement project on Highland Drive. Lewis said the funds were there, as reflected in the fund report, "we just did not get it appropriated when we passed our permanent budget."
[[In-content Ad]]• Zink reported that according to newly released Census data, the city's population increased by 262, to 6,605. Zink said that he felt the city had grown more than that in the last 10 years, and he suspected that not all Hillsboro residents responded to the Census.
• Terry Mikkelsen, a Hillsboro resident and candidate for mayor, addressed council regarding the temporary sign ordinance and the city's website. Mikkelsen said that an internet search for Hillsboro ordinances brought up outdated ordinances on the city's website. Zink said that because the code of ordinances was not up to date on the website, that feature had been disconnected. Mikkelsen said that it could still be found, and that it appeared to be official and could confuse some residents, which was something the city should address. Council president Lee Koogler said the most up to date ordinances were available at the city building, or from a member of council.
• Zink reported to council that he had informed a primary election candidate that his signs had been erected too early and were in violation of the city's sign ordinance. The ordinance currently states temporary signs can be put up no more than 30 days prior to an event. Zink said that candidate had contacted Beery who informed him that a court ruling from 2009 made the ordinance unconstitutional, as it stated local governments could not interfere with political signage. Zink said he had apologized to the candidate. Koogler asked council member Bonnie Parr, chairperson of the property maintenance and restoration committee which is in charge or signs, to revisit the matter. Parr said the temporary sign ordinance was already in committee.