Marion City Council votes to seek state help for embattled city auditor's office
Council voted 9-0 on Monday to request the Ohio Auditor of State's Local Government Services division provide "support and assistance with accounting" for Auditor Miranda Meginness and her staff. According to the resolution passed by City Council, the city is seeking "assistance with reconciling accounts and re-establishing financial auditing and accountabilities within the Office of the (City) Auditor."
"The (services) I'm interested in are the (bank) reconciliations and the training that they can come into the office to provide," Councilman Jason Schaber, Ward 3, said. "If you hit the frequently asked questions drop-down box, the first question is 'Did the previous auditor leave your office in a mess?' Their answer is, 'We can come in and help and train your office.' That's what I'm looking for."
State auditor's assistance expected to be an immense help
Meginness said she believes the state auditor's Local Government Services division is "going to be an immense help" to her and her staff.
"We've been doing everything we can up to this point to try and figure it out on our own using the available resources we have," Meginness said Monday after the city council vote. "Local Government Services used to do the financial statement preparations (for the City of Marion) so we do have a decent relationship with a few of the people in that office. I just don't know if it'll be the same ones coming in."
Tensions between city council and the auditor's office began to boil under the administration of former auditor Robert Landon III, who resigned on Oct. 18, 2021, ending a tumultuous two years following his election to the office in 2019. During his tenure, Landon, a Republican, clashed with Mayor Scott Schertzer, a Democrat, and several city council members over numerous issues, ranging from whether the city's books were balanced to why the auditor's office mistakenly paid $1.28 million to the State of Ohio that was intended for the Internal Revenue Service. The city incurred a $153,000 penalty for that error.
How the city got to where it is
The Marion County Republican Party Central Committee appointed Meginness to replace Landon in November 2021. Like Landon, she had no prior experience in government finance and had to learn the position on the fly in 2022 while dealing with the fallout from the Landon administration and trying to oversee financial audits for 2021 and 2022.
In an effort to solve the city's issues with bank reconciliation and facilitate the completion of the 2021 financial audit, city council voted in November 2022 to allow Meginness to contract with Veritas Solutions Group to conduct that project. The city previously contracted with Charles E. Harris & Associates in March 2022 to conduct the 2021 financial audit. To date, neither the 2021 nor 2022 audits are completed and the bank reconciliation project is ongoing.
"Obviously, I don't know how it's going to work as far as (Local Government Services) coming in and picking up where Veritas has left off," Meginness said. "We've done a ton of work on that bank reconciliation project so far, but I look forward to seeing how they can help us get back on track."
After beginning her tenure with a clean slate, the relationship between Meginness and city council has deteriorated over the course of 2023. At various times, city council has accused Meginness of not providing accurate information to it on a variety of issues. In particular, Councilman Ayers Ratliff, 2nd Ward, stated that Meginness provided council with "false information ... in numerous aspects of purchasing the fire truck as to interest (on the loan), payoff information, timing of purchasing, etc."
Bond rating removed
While not her fault, more pressure was brought to bear on Meginness after S&P Global Ratings informed Meginness in April of this year that it was withdrawing the city's bond rating. Previously, S&P had downgraded the city’s bond rating from AA to BB in the wake of the city’s 2020 audit report, which was not completed until May 2022.
Meginness said that, according to documentation she received from S&P Global Ratings, the company withdrew the bond ratings of “various local governments and utility systems” due to the failure of those entities to provide S&P “adequate and timely financial information necessary to maintain surveillance of the ratings in accordance with our applicable criteria and policies. Such financial information includes the 2021 audited financial statements.”
No confidence vote failed
Meginness is running without opposition in the Nov. 7 general election. She filed to run as an independent candidate after disaffiliating from the Marion County Republican Party in July 2022.
Marion City Council will conduct committee meetings at 6:30 p.m. on Oct. 16 at City Hall. To see meeting agendas, go to the City of Marion website www.marionohio.us. To listen to audio recordings of city council meetings, go to the City of Marion Ohio YouTube channel.
Email: ecarter@gannett.com
This article originally appeared on Marion Star: Marion City Council votes to seek state help for city auditor's office
