Consultant Touts Warsaw’s Financial Picture, Suggests Review Of Fees
WARSAW — A consultant offered a positive critique of city finances Monday night, Nov. 4, and suggested a few ways to improve upon its fiscal standing.
Jeff Rowe, a partner and CPA with Baker Tilly, spoke to Warsaw City Council after the company completed an in-depth assessment of city financials and development of a comprehensive financial plan looking forward to five years.
Overall, Rowe said the city’s cash balances, growth in tax revenues and the continuing expansion of assessed value put the city on solid footing.
“The city continues to operate in a strong financial position. We’ve seen that historically and we see that continuing over the next three years,” Rowe told council members.
Rowe did not go into details but said looming capital expenditures, upward of $32 million, will present a challenge to the city.
“Certainly it will take, perhaps, some changes and be creative in how certain costs, capital, and other costs are paid for. But on the whole, we feel confident in terms of looking at the financial position moving forward,” he said.
The comprehensive financial plan included a series of proposals aimed at further strengthening the city’s financial outlook.
In addition to shifting some funds to take some pressure off the general fund, Rowe said the plan also calls for possibly hiking various fees.
Often, fees are set and then overlooked for years despite rising costs, Rowe said.
“Obviously, costs go up. It makes sense every now and then to kind of take a step back and review all those fees to ensure they are adequate to cover the cost of that service,” he said.
Another alternative would be the establishment of a trash fee.
“I can understand some resistance or concern about establishing new fees, however a lot of municipalities have been compelled to … shift trash from being funded through the general fund to establish a user fee. That’s because it’s become too burdensome on the general fund,” he said.
The change would free up $260,000 annually. He termed the idea “something to consider down the road.”
Talk of raising fees or establishing a garbage collection fee did not result in any vocal reaction from council members.
Councilman Jack Wilhite was complimentary in Baker Tilly’s efforts to focus on the city finances and questioned rhetorically why the city hadn’t done so sooner.
In another matter, the council continued work on crafting a policy for retaining a council attorney beginning next year, a move that would apparently be a first for a city this size in Indiana.
Council members grappled Monday with protocol in how council members would reach out to the attorney for services. Some liked the idea of requiring a councilman to bring their request to another councilman before approaching the council president.
The need for control of the process is aimed at preventing a single council member from reaching out to the attorney on their own without support or knowledge of other council members.
While there appears to be broad support for retaining an attorney, opinions on how to set up the arrangement seem to vary.
Councilman Ron Shoemaker urged council members several times to forward the contract to the board of works for approval while continuing to refine the protocol for working with the attorney.
Councilman Michael Klondaris opposed the idea of needing a second councilperson before a colleague could make a request to the council president.
Jeff Grose, the lone vocal opponent of the proposal, said the proposed contract needs cleaning up in several regards. He also expressed concern over how council would handle numerous scenarios and the complexities of how council would interact with the attorney.
Grose has questioned the need for council to retain an attorney when other free alternatives, including the city attorney and one available at the state level, are available.
After a lengthy discussion, council chose to have a task force that includes Klondaris, Shoemaker and council president Diane Quance work with city attorney Scott Reust to look at changes in the contract and develop guidelines on how council should contact the attorney.
While there was no formal announcement, talk during the meeting indicated the attorney council is seeking to retain is from Wabash. Afterward, Quance confirmed Douglas Lehman is the presumptive choice for the position.
Talk of establishing a council attorney began earlier this year during a review of circumstances with a police incident.
Council members have said they have no specific issue they want to look into, but want the availability of the service.
Council intends to set aside $12,000 for the service in the 2020 budget.