Parks’ commissioners held a special meeting on Feb. 1 where Director Scott Miskiel told commissioners this was the last time they would see a “confusing” structure, explaining that staff and the finance committee had been working on consolidating redundant accounts.
Commissioner Pat Costner questioned discrepancies in the financials and ledger. The first was a $27,000 excess in the 1/8 percent sales tax revenue, saying the 1/4 percent tax is always half the size and in this case it was not.
\Miskiel said that he had gone back 16 months, transaction through transaction, and found that in December 2020 the city had missed a deposit for the 1/8 percent tax, and in early spring of 2021 had made a lump sum payment to make up for missed month. Miskiel said he had received an email from City Finance Director Lonnie Clark that the deposit had been made and said in the future it would be easier to track such mistakes now that the city is putting money for the 1/8 percent and 1/4 percent taxes into separate bank accounts.
Costner mentioned that should have been noted in the ledger, and Chair Kevin Ruehle said that they had only discovered why there was the discrepancy a week-and-a-half before the meeting and that it did not affect the financials. Miskiel said that he and Ruehle will be reconciling accounts monthly so such discrepancies would be caught earlier. He also said that Parks intends to hire a bookkeeper.
Costner said she was concerned that the shuttles showed nearly $70,000 in income without any expenses. Miskiel and Ruehle explained that shuttle drivers’ payment was shown as an HR expense, paid through the city, and Parks receives the lump sum bill for employee salaries each month. She also questioned why certain loan payments for the shuttle were not shown. Ruehle said that payments to the principal is considered equity on the balance sheet and the interest was shown as an expense.
Ruehle explained how Miskiel had been working to make the shuttles financially operational, including requiring private shuttles to be licensed and creating a reservation program for Parks’ shuttles. He said that even after loan payments and employee costs the net revenue of shuttles was almost $40,000.
Costner said she was appreciative of the effort of “making a silk purse out of a sow’s ear” before saying there were problems with a lack of uniformity within the ledger, describing them as not “repetitious” as they should be.
Ruehle said that she “was preaching to the choir” and that they could only do so much with a chart of accounts that was “a hash of unintelligible categories.” Miskiel offered commissioners further monthly reports on Parks’ operations to keep them better informed. Ruehle said that there would be another time to discuss such processes, but that the financials still needed to be passed.
Commissioner Sue Hubbard said that in December, Miskiel provided commissioners with a report estimating income at $120,000, but the financial statements showed $97,000. When asked about the discrepancy, Miskiel said that two out of the ordinary expenses needed to be made in November and December: $5,000 to Stacy Stoneworks for work at Magnetic Spring, and $31,825.18 for road repairs at Lake Leatherwood City Park. He said if not for those transactions, income would have been ahead of estimations. He added that the road repairs were long overdue.
Financials passed 4-0-1 with Costner abstaining and Ruehle being the final fourth vote.