Mary Alice Reporting –
An affidavit will be sent to the state auditor related to performance failures of the City of Uhrichsville’s auditor.
Council had previous meetings with an independent auditor, Jeryl McGaffick, who noticed discrepancies related to financial statements, with one example given that $3,000 was paid for a $91 service bill.
Balance entries and other inaccurate financial concerns were pointed out by Finance Committee Chair Polly Clark.
Legislation was presented to council as noted by President Robert Cottrell.
“Now we’ve heard from both an independent auditor and the chair of the finance committee that there are serious concerns about the city’s finances, especially where the city auditor has failed to perform physical duties expressly imposed on him by Ohio Law, which also leads to the question whether or not he is competent to perform the duties of the office and into the future.”
Uhrichsville Mayor Jim Zucal added that the auditor has had health issues more recently.
“He’s not well right now. Physically not well. He’s been involved in many meetings coming up to this point, dating back to last summer. I think the bank reconciliations hadn’t been done since June of 2023, so it’s been discussed while he was here. When the new administration came in January, we basically said that this is a real problem, so he was aware of that.”
The law director said that council or administration does not have the capability to remove an elected official, which makes the affidavit needed.
Thursday evening a resolution was passed by council to have Clark sign the document, which will be sent to the Ohio State Auditor’s office for review.
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