Crunch-time for council
By Debbie Lowe Staff writer

The Carroll County Council has an awesome task ahead of it. It is time to set the 2008 budget. Council members will do this faced with what appeared to be close to a $2.5 million difference between income and spending in 2006 and without knowing what will ultimately happen in 2007.

Given the county reserve seems to be depleted and the auditor's and treasurer's offices accounts do not balance (making the bottom-line questionable), it is reasonable to expect the council to respond as if the county has significantly less money, in the bank and/or in reserve, to use for 2008. Rather than make faulty spending judgments, it could be assumed the council would take a cautious approach to appropriations for the upcoming year.

Council member Ann Brown read a prepared statement prior to beginning the budget hearings on Aug. 20. She said the council formed a finance committee several months ago to investigate why the county "appeared to be suffering a shortage of funds." She said it was not known at that time how critical the situation was and how important it had become to identify the source or sources of the problem.

"A problem cannot be solved until the source can be found," her statement read.

Brown said she was informed by a representative from the Indiana State Board of Accounts that in general, the council does not "ask enough questions." She said she was advised that questions should be asked and asked in public and was also told, "you should begin that practice immediately."

"You have accomplished much more than you realize," Brown continued to reiterate the words from the SBOA representative. "You are to be congratulated for recognizing our problem and congratulated for what has been accomplished thus far."

"However, until you begin asking more questions and force those in charge of their individual departments to be responsible - and likewise they should ask more questions - you will not solve your problems. And .... if you don't insist on balanced books, you cannot know where you are at any given time," Brown went on.

It is with those thoughts that budget hearings were held Monday and Tuesday of last week. Departments presented requests for their 2008 spending expectations. Some department heads appeared and were able to answer questions. But some, such as the health department, were represented by those who are not decision-makers.

Some who appeared were elected officials and some were hired by county commissioners. Commissioners' president Loren Hylton presented for the commissioners. George Mears spent time in the audience listening to somepresentations. Depart- ments varied in approach to the council. Some presented requests for nearly the same spending level as for 2007. Some departments approached the council with contention and some learned they had inherited budgetary issues from their predecessor that may now translate into spending restrictions.

There were departments who announced staffing changes and service provision revamps to save money and some who said their departments needed new carpeting and chair pads.

Two departments brought to the council issues concerning discrepancies in their account balances not previously discovered.

Steve Ashby stressed to those revenue generating departments the need for closely tracking receipts and disbursements for comparison.

Department heads were questioned about the monitoring of compensatory time. Ashby said the county currently has approximately 3,316 hours of comp time documented.

The council will meet Sept. 7 at 8 a.m. for a meeting to discuss regular county business.

Members will meet Sept. 11 at 8 a.m. to discuss the bottom line and propose appropriations. Those numbers will be given to departments for review and a Sept. 13 8 a.m. meeting will be held for departments to discuss the proposed budgets publicly.

The final budget numbers will be discussed Sept. 25 at 8 a.m. and adoption is slated for Sept. 26 at 8 a.m. prior to a monthly council meeting scheduled for 8:30.

SBOA audit results exit conferences are scheduled with county leaders the first two weeks in September. Those meetings are not public. However, after a response period, the SBOA will post the findings of the 2006 audit. Those results will be made public at that time. The document can be downloaded from the SBOA Web site at www.in.gov/sboa/resources.