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Chillicothe Hopes ‘Fiscal Caution’ Will Be Lifted In 2016
By: Associated Press
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CHILLICOTHE – City officials in Chillicothe hope to have their fiscal caution status lifted by the Ohio Auditor of State’s office sometime this year after taking steps to correct a number of issues that led to the declaration more than three years ago.
The Chillicothe Gazette reports that Ohio Auditor Dave Yost placed the city in a state of fiscal caution due to deficits in police and fire pension funds, in addition to a failure to perform basic accounting reconciliations. Fiscal caution is the first step in a process that identifies financial problems as soon as possible and provides assistance to prevent the situation from worsening.
A local accounting firm, was hired by city leaders in September 2013 to help get caught up with a backlog of bank reconciliation statements in the treasurer’s office. The firm was brought in after bank reconciliations weren’t completed by former Treasurer Dave Neal, who said health problems affected his ability to perform his duties.
The city will be audited by the state this spring and Mayor Feeney is hopeful the fiscal caution designation will be removed sometime in the first quarter of this year.