Audit reveals financial hardship

An audit of the City of Harrisburg revealed financial hardship during Thursday's council meeting.

The auditing company of Tanner CPA revealed the city the last fiscal year was short $214,895 between revenues and expenditures. Total cash in all funds was $7,600,261.

Of particular concern are police and fire pensions. Carlos Tanner reported the police pension fund is 48 percent unfunded and the fire pension is 38 percent unfunded. There is a legal requirement for both pensions funds to be fully funded by 2040.

Worker compensation topped the $1 million mark for the first time this year with expenses of $1,054,710. Last year's workers' compensation was $986,000.

"It's growing by about $70,000 per year," Tanner said.

He said in good news the state approves of the city's handling of grant money through the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity and other sources. The city received over $1 million in money for houses destroyed in the Feb. 29, 2012, tornado and a total of nearly $2 million in total grant money.

"The state gave you good report, so that's a little ray of sunshine," Tanner said.

Tanner said there are some ongoing issues regarding the water and sewer department. He said staff has not been properly trained on new software for billing and that segregation of duties between the water clerk and deputy clerk is needed. He recommends utilizing a third party for bill collections to help with money oversight.

In the general fund balances there is only a four to four-and-a-half month coverage, in the water fund there is only a three-and-a-half month coverage and in the sewer fund there is only a one month of coverage.

"You really don't have enough money for one year to the next for your budge in case there was glitch," Tanner said.

Also, health care costs are going up by $40,000 per month.

Tanner noted $100,000 was added to the tax levee this year to try to keep up with expenses and that the last several years have brought special challenges with floods of 2011 and the tornado of 2012.

"We do expect next year's audit to be a little different," Finance Commissions Ron Fearheiley said.

Tanner agreed.

"You haven't had a normal budget in three years," Tanner said.

Outside fire calls

Street Commissioner John McPeek made a motion to continue fire calls to the outlying areas of Harrisburg. During the previous meeting council agreed to send the fire department to any fire in Harrisburg Township until Nov. 6 with the hope township residents would pass a referendum to help fund the fire department through taxes in the November election.

McPeek's motion, seconded by Public Properties Commissioner Dale Fowler, failed. McPeek and Fowler voted yes while Police and Fire Commissioner Bart Schiff, Fearheily and Mayor Ron Crank voted no.

Citizen Beth Montfort also spoke out on the issue. City Attorney Todd Bittle spoke against numbers Montfort had brought up at a Feb. 6 council meeting. Montfort said then that in the past 10 years there were only seven calls with the $2,000 charge being unpaid in full and of those four involved extrications from vehicle and three were vehicle fires.

Montfort said her information came from the city clerk's office through a Freedom of Information Act request and if those numbers were not accurate it is the city's own inaccuracy. She gave copies of the information she obtained to council members.

"I would not come up here and present quotes that were not correct," Montfort said.

When asked about other townships receiving Harrisburg fire protection, such as Independence, Schiff suggested they might enter into a similar agreement as what Harrisburg Township has.

"If Independence came to us we might want to do the same thing," Schiff said.

During the meeting:

McPeek said Baby Huey Recycling has changed its hours to 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. the third Saturday of the month at the gate of the leaf and limb site on Veterans Drive. Electronics are accepted.

Council approved closing Vine and Locust streets near the courthouse for the Wing-A-Ma-Jig chicken wing festival scheduled for June 14.

Council voted to pay certified on call firefighters $24 per call for the first two hours of a call and $10 per hour after two hours and for noncertified firefighters $20 per call for the first two hours and $10 each hour after.

Water Superintendent Kelly Hefner said Illinois Environment Protection Agency rules dictate new testing procedures. Currently the department conducts about 26 tests per week and in the future will need to conduit up to 50 tests per week. Some of those tests require equipment costing about $50,000 the department cannot afford.

"A lot of these test have to be outsourced," Hefner said.

He said that outsourcing - to a firm in Peoria and to Summit in Johnston City - may cost the city $17,218 per year.

Engineer Jim Brown provided council with a letter to send to those suspected of flushing improper materials into the sewer system. Plastic gloves and ice bags are chief offenders. He said with a new sewer gate and sewage trickling filter, it is more important than ever to keep these materials out of the sewer. Council approved sending a letter to suspected offenders and is prepared to enforce the $750 fine for violating the city ordinance.

During the Feb. 6 council meeting a man from Davis Tree Services asked for permission to dump limbs at the city's limb collection site off Veterans Drive to avoid charging an extra $1,000 to customers to haul them to an out-of-county location. Fowler said he had contacted with a local company that manufactures mulch and believes a deal can be worked out to mulch local tree trimmings and save residents the extra cost.

Crank appointed Roger Angelly to the Harrisburg Police Pension Board.