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A recent performance audit by the Ohio State Auditor Office requested by the City of Marietta revealed that if the city's recent trend of negative operating results and cash depletion in the General Fund continues, it could be depleted by as early as 2025. The City of Marietta continues to look at the audit and discuss ways to improve their spending and budgeting so their General Fund does not become depleted. The City of Marietta has a total of 52 funds that they manage the city with, according to Mayor Josh Schlicher. He says the General Fund is a "catch all" mainly providing money for police and fire services along with building and park maintenance among other services.
"We're working on tightening the General Fund or else we could be seeing deficit spending in 2025, the audit has identified that the city has a spending problem," said Schlicher.
"We don't wanna be in the red. The audit does have other suggestions and recommendations that don't have an impact on operational costs or staffing costs. We've been looking at changes, capital expenditures, and policy on carry over. We're not making huge changes. My goal since 2020 is to change how we did things 50, 30 years ago and make operational changes. We want to get the most out of our money for our citizens."
At the Marietta City Council meeting on Feb. 15, council introduced an emergency resolution to accept and endorse the performance audit and agree to implement the recommendations within the audit.
"Susan Vessels, the President of Council and Mayor Schlicher will be creating a work group to look at the operational side of the Performance Audit with myself and Cassidi Shoaf," Finance Chairman Mike Scales said. "They chose the two of us, under the ethics law, because we're not on any committees together. Budget Director Mitch Dimmerling and Theresa Taylor with Human Resources will also be in the work group with us."
The resolution also stated the reason for declaration of emergency measure was for "immediate preservation of the public peace, health, and safety of the City of Marietta, Ohio, and for the further reason that prompt action is necessary in order for the City of Marietta to continue to be financially solvent."
"We're going to be looking at saving costs and we need to watch our revenue and expenses," said Scales. "If we don't, we won't be able to provide all the services for our citizens down the road."
"We want to come up with a goal to reduce spending," Shoaf said. "We need that goal so we know what we can reach and what the impact is on citizens."
"The city of Marietta has a slight cash flow problem," Schlicher said.
"People make rumors about the city being broke, but it is further from the truth. We're working on getting ahead."
Dimmerling did not have comments at this time.
The recent Performance Audit for the City of Marietta is currently available for the public at https://mariettaoh.net/index.php/information/city-of-marietta-performance-audit-february-2024.
Scales and Shoaf also welcome citizens to make comments and suggestions to council members about the audit.