Treasurer refuses to commit to balanced books
Council president suggests finance committee disband
By Debbie Lowe Staff writer

Carroll County Council members have grappled with the county's financial issue for months. They have expected cooperation from department heads to help extricate the county from the situation it finds itself in presently. For the county to be on the road to recovery, the books in the treasurer's and auditor's offices must be balanced.

However, county treasurer Jane Brewington refused to promise to balance the county's financial books by the end of the year at Tuesday morning's council meeting. Brewington was pressed for a definitive response when council president Rob Baker told her he was not asking, but telling her that she would have the work done and the books would be balanced by the deadline.

"Your books will be balanced by Dec. 31," Baker stated.

"I can only hope," was Brewington's reply.

Brewington said she was still working on property tax payments and the additional person the county hired to find bookkeeping errors and problems in her office was not able to work the number of hours expected.

Baker replied that she had been working on the balancing issue for months and property tax payments had only recently arrived.

Finance committee

Baker suggested the council finance committee be disbanded to form another group to continue the work. He said the new group would include one council member, a commissioner, the auditor and the treasurer. When asked, Baker was unable to say exactly when he planned for the new group to begin work. He said that was "up in the air."

However, the suggestion was met with resistance by other council members.

Finance committee member Ron Slavens explained the finance committee now has a good working relationship with the Indiana State Board of Accounts. He said SBOA sees a functioning body within the council and to change the players now would send the wrong message to the state group.

"We're in the midst of a very important time," he said. "It is not wellserved to stop what we are doing and shift it to others."

"I don't think it should be considered," he added. "It's the wrong time."

Steve Ashby agreed with his fellow committee member.

"I agree with Ron," he said. "We may be close to getting on top of the problem. We have to finish this part of it. We have to develop a two-year plan. It's taken months to develop a good relationship with the SBOA."

Baker suggested the committee write a comprehensive final report to pass on to their replacements, but that also met with resistance.

"A final report is not fair to us or to the ones we would pass it on to," Ann Brown said. "A new group might be formed after the problem is solved. But the problem has not been solved."

Jerry Hendress agreed with committee members, with a qualification they work with others in their planning and solution execution.

"It will take teamwork of involving the commissioners, the auditor and the treasurer. They should be invited to participate at least," he said. "I really think these other people have to be involved to form the plan."

However, that suggestion also met with resistance from Ashby. He explained the plan needed to be formed in conjunction with the SBOA. He said after plan development was com- plete would be the time to involve the others.

Slavens said the SBOA was "getting interested that someone in the county government is working on the problem," after three or four years of issues.

Auditor's report

Auditor Beth Myers reported the county received property tax rebate money, which was put into the general fund. That fund now shows a positive balance.

"At least we are in the black right now," she said.

She said the county general fund owed E-911 $470,348 from 2003, 2004, and 2005. Her plan is to transfer that amount from county general into E-911 soon.

"I would like to have that fixed by the end of the year," she said.

Myers explained there were some "stagnant" fund accounts that could possibly be used to pay bills for the remainder of the year. The funds do not affect the general fund, she said.

Other business

A veterans' burial benefits resolution from the commissioners to pay $250 per veteran was approved in a three to two vote. Slavens and Ashby voted against the measure.

A new full-time director for Emergency Management Agency will be hired.

A full-time truck driver vacancy will be filled at the highway department.

Transfers approved

• Extension office - $400 from postage to mileage;

• Election board - $983.23 from printing to programming optech tapes;

• Commissioners - $32,000 from cost of keeping juveniles to retirement;

• Jail - $1,000 from jailers to extra kitchen help, $1,500 to part-time dispatch/jail/civil process and $8,000 from meals for prisoners to medical, dental, doctor;

• Animal control - $2,500 from repair and maintenance, $2,000 from professional services and $2,500 from machinery and equipment all to operating supplies (fuel);

• Transfer station - $500 from repairs and maintenance to part-time help;

• Park board - $100 from mowing French Post Park to building and structure repair;

• E-911 - $1,000 from fulltime communications to PERF, $335 from Teleco charge/data base to Phone/911/tower lines and $400 from Telco charge/data base to mileage; and

• Highway - $10 from current charges, licenses to drainage.

A transfer request from Animal control to part-time dispatch/ jail/civil process for $4,000 was tabled for further review.

Additionals approved:

• Cumulative Bridge - $40,763 to Carrollton Bridge (money already received);

• Superior court - $2,000 to joint courts for law books (from an alcohol and drug user fee account), $5,000 to per diem petit jury (from court fees account) and $1,870 to per diem petit jury (from supplemental public defender services).

The next meeting will be Dec. 11 at 8 a.m.

According to the "Here is Your Indiana Government Book" the state statute provides for a county "Board of Finance." Members of that board are to be the county treasurer and commissioners. One duty designated to the board is to "audit the accounts of all officers having the care, management, collection or disbursement of any monies belonging to the county or appropriated for its benefit..."