AUDITOR OF STATE AWARD … As a part of Tuesday, November 9, 2021 Fulton County Commissioners Meeting, Lori Brodie from the Ohio State Auditor’s Office, was present to give an award to Fulton County Auditor Brett Kolb and his office. Kolb sees this award which is presented, “for excellence in financial reporting in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) and compliance with applicable laws for the fiscal year ended 2020,” as a nod to all of the county departments for work well done. He may be the Auditor, but he insisted on sharing the award with all who were present from each department. There for the presentation were (back row) Clerk of Courts Tracy Zuver, Commissioners Jeff Rupp and Jon Rupp, Chief Deputy Auditor Doug Nafziger, County Administrator Vond Hall and Senior Center Director Sheri Rychener. In the front row are County Recorder Wendy Hardy, County Treasurer Char Lee, Lori Brodie for State Auditor Keith Fabor, Brett Kolb, and Fiscal Director Annie Hernandez. (PHOTO BY REBECCA MILLER, STAFF)
By: Rebecca Miller
At the end of the Tuesday, November 9, 2021 meeting of the Fulton County Commissioners, Lori Brodie, representing Ohio State Auditor Keith Fabor, presented an Ohio Auditor of State Award to Fulton County.
Fulton County Auditor Brett Kolb was present along with a number of department heads, to receive the award. Brodie explained to the Commissioners that this is a prestigious award as only about 8% of the 6000 entities audited each year receive it.
There are very specific requirements of the Auditing for the county in order to get this award. She also said that Fulton County has consistently won this for a number of years, at least four out of the last five years.
“It represents the hard work of all your employees in the county,” Metz said, “and so I say thank you to the employees of the county who do a good job every day to achieve having County Excellence.”
“I also want to recognize the County Commissioners and all of your staff, because I think you have to do a good job of your accounting for every dollar being spent in the county. I especially want to recognize the Auditor who gets to head up the wrangling of all the information that we need.”
“I also want to thank the staff because you guys do a great job, and the other departments as well.” She presented the award to Mr. Kolb, thanking him and his staff for their “excellence and integrity in leadership.”
On Thursday, November 4, 2021, the Fulton County Commissioners met for the passage of resolutions and to continue to with Budget Hearings.
They reviewed a request of Wauseon Homecoming Committee for Parking Lot use; Correspondence from City of Toledo for 2022 Water Rate Changes; Treasurer to Auditor Balancing Report; Amended Certificate of Estimated Resources; and Certificate of Non compliance and approved:
-Minutes from November 2, 2021, the agenda as presented, Increase and Transfer of appropriations for various departments, and Purchase Orders and Travel Requests
-Resolution 804 Approve Inter-County Transfers for JFS
-Resolution 805 Execute letter to Apple Developer Program on behalf of Marketing and Communications Director.
-Resolution 806 Approve Pay request #1 to Vernon Nagel for Cty. Rd. H Contract 2021-48
-Resolution 807 Approve Pay request #2 to Vernon Nagel for Cty. Rd. H Contract 2021-48
-Resolution 808 Approve Oversight of Amendment #2 to Contract 2019-62 with Denis McKay on behalf of Job and Family Services (JFS)
-Resolution 809 Accept Recommendation of Loss Control Coordinator for Workers Comp Claim
Following a short recess the commissioners heard first from County Auditor Brett Kolb with the Department Budget Hearing. Kolb said that the budget hasn’t really changed from last year, adding that “last year we had some left over but everything else is pretty flat.”
County Administrator Vond Hall asked if the revenue for the multi year dog tags has leveled out and Kolb responded that they are now into a cycle where it has leveled off. He estimated about 140,000 in dog tags and will exceed that with new dog tags needing to be purchased December first.
Judge Michael Bumb also shared for his department budget hearing, that with using the state grant it looks like they will have a little over $100,000 in this year’s detention line that will not be spent.
For juvenile detention, the Judge stated that the best alternative to the spending on that line, would be to raise the per diem, adding that “if they raise it significantly he will do an amendment to the state grant for the last six months of the fiscal year.
This would mean that for Fulton County the state grants will pay the extra money for the kids in the program.” He requested that the commissioners raise the $330 to $420 in the Juvenile Detention line of the budget, just to cover.
With no further business that day the meeting adjourned. On Tuesday, November 9, 2021 the Commissioners convened to pass a few resolutions, hold another Budget Hearing and to witness the Award Presentation to County Auditor Brett Kolb.
They began at 9:00 a.m., with Commissioner Joe Short absent, approving the following:
-Minutes from November 4, 2021, agenda as presented, payment of bills, increase and transfer of appropriations and Purchase orders and travel requests
-Resolution 815 Authorize Parking Lot Use for 2021 Wauseon Christmas Parade
-Resolution 816 Approve Draw #2 for CDBG Grant B-E-20-1AX-1 Nova Tube and Steel
-Resolution 817 Approve Recommendation of Loss Control Coordinator for Workers Comp Claim
-Resolution 818 Accept Resignation of JFS Employee
-Resolution 819 Approve Personnel Request on behalf of Senior Center
At 9:15 Amy Metz-Simon, Job and Family Services Director addressed the Commissioners for a Department Budget Hearing. Metz gave each one present a copy of her presentation over view.
She commented at the beginning that JFS is an entity which is not only federal, and state funded, but is locally funded also. Her report covered a comparison of the revenue and the expenses of the department, and stated that expenses for JFS are reimbursable so if they do not have the expense, they do not receive the revenue.
8.2% of the JFS budget is from the General fund and the rest is comprised of federal and state funding. For 2022 that will be $558,172, which is based on the “mandated share.”
A revenue summary was also a part of the report along with a Table of Organization. Metz said that they are hoping to hire a part time administrative support person, but as someone is retiring, that will be a half person if they find the need.
The Public Assistance Appropriations budget for 2022 comes to $3,472,977.67, Child Support Appropriations for 2022 is estimated to be $851,350.54, and Children Services Appropriations Budget for 2022 will be around $1,755,864. She also mentioned that they would like to replace a Ford Escape if the Commissioners approve that.
The budget for workforce has gone up drastically,” Metz said. They are working on finding some ways to bring that down and bring in some money for the workforce budget. The Commissioners thanked Ms. Metz-Simon for her report.
After the presentation of the Auditor’s Award, the meeting adjourned. The county offices were closed on Thursday, November 11, 2021 for Veteran’s Day so there were no Commissioners Sessions held that day.
Rebecca can be reached at rebecca@thevillagereporter.com