The Finance committee of Christiansburg’s Town Council was provided with background documents at about 5pm the night before the April 29 meeting. In spite of short time available to look at the material, committee members Ann Carter and Mike Barber had done a review. What they found is a $2.6 MILLION deficit and a questionable accounting of your tax dollars.
The material prepared was an odd combination of spreadsheet formats; the amateur presentation of data wasn’t even consistent from section to section. This budget presentation wouldn't survive a minute in the real world. Town Manager Lance Terpenny has been on the job for 12 years and should know how to present a professional draft budget.
(Note: Thanks to Ann Carter, there were copies available to attendees. We were all ready to pay for them, but thanks to the Town for not charging us -- even though a "price tag" of $3.20 each was included on copies.)
Throughout the discussion, major budget items would be pointed out as "carried over." For example, a $65,000 backhoe is in the new budget. Mr. Terpenny pointed out that it was in last year's budget, but hadn't been delivered yet – as if to explain why it's in this years budget.
Show Me the Money
If last year's $65,000 was not spent on a backhoe, where is it? If the money is in the piggy bank at Town Hall, $65,000 does not need to be included in the new budget. Accounting is either accrual based or cash based. The Town needs to pick one method and stick to it.
Mr. Terpenny and Barry Helms, Assistant Town Manager, explained that the Town’s accounting software erroneously puts FICA and VSRS expenditures into the wrong departments. The software does that all by itself! This has been going on for 2 years, and the problem has not been corrected. In the real world, a company would be out of business, or the problem corrected. Two years of bad payroll information is an accounting nightmare that never should have happened.
No personnel numbers were included anywhere in the budget. Mr. Barber asked how many people are in the street department. Mr. Terpenny chuckled and said "Unknown." That lead into an explanation of personnel being assigned across departments and of seasonal variations in staffing.
Combine this shifting of staff across departments, seasonal variations and incompetent use of accounting software and there is no way at all to accurately peg personnel costs, usually the largest expenditure in any organization. To haphazardly track such a large part of a small town's budget is irresponsible. Mr. Terpenny described himself as the "fiscal administrator." He needs to start acting the part.
Bottom Line
We all need to ask lots of questions. The T’s will scan and post the material received at the meeting yesterday, so you can have as much information as is available.
Ten residents, two members of the press, and one Council member (Mr. Wade) attended the meeting. The strong turnout of residents was due to the efforts of reporter Donna Banks and some dedicated residents getting the word out – doing the Town Manager’s job. Shall we send the Town a bill for our time?