MIAMI TOWNSHIP, GREENE COUNTY -- The people who run a small township in Greene County, owe taxpayers thousands of dollars. The results of a state audit were released in January, ordering the fiscal officer and trustees of Miami Township to repay more than $11,000 taxpayer dollars. It's been more than two months now, and the money hasn't been paid back.
Margaret Silliman is the fiscal officer for Miami Township in Greene County, meaning she's in charge of the money. A state audit found she and the three trustee's owe the township exactly $11,624 due to a discrepancy in books and salary overpayments.
"Two trustees have already started paying the money back and then another trustee and myself are just waiting to hear from the auditor to see how they want to handle it. It will be paid back. There's no argument about it. It's just how it's going to be paid back," Silliman said.
But Silliman says not everything is going to be paid back because she claims the amount of money owed is incorrect. The township just got done conducting a private audit which found the bookkeeping discrepency. She says it will serve as proof to eliminate about half the debt. However, she admits, she and the trustees did pay themselves too much money from 2009 to 2010. The overpayments total $5,775.
"In this area things are pretty tight for running everything so I would imagine its digging into someone's pocket," said Greene Co. resident John Brennan.
"Each trustee and myself overpaid ourselves at the misdirection of the auditors," Silliman said.
The salary for Silliman and the trustees is based on the annual budget. Silliman says the auditor's office told her to give everyone a raise because they had been getting underpaid. It turns out that information was incorrect. The result, they got paid too much money, thousands in taxpayer dollars.
"What was neglected to be done was check our budget for that year. They assumed we were at 1.5 million when really we were under so that means we weren't not entitled to a raise at that time. But they didn't check. I didn't check because I was so stunned to hear we had been underpaying ourselves. So that was a mistake, that was an error, that's how that happened," Silliman said.
Silliman says she thinks the auditor's office should be held accountable for telling her to give herself and the trustees a raise when they shouldn't have gotten one. She says the money owed to the township will be paid back, once she hears from the auditor's office. We will continue following this story to make sure the tax dollars are repaid and the government officials responsible are held accountable.
If you suspect local or state goverment is wasting your money, we want to investigate. Call our Waste Watch tipline 937-262-1426.
EARLIER -----------------------------------------------------------------
Columbus - Conflicting bank account balances and using the wrong statutory salary schedule led to more than $11,000 owed to Miami Township (Greene County) taxpayers, according to an audit released by Auditor of State Dave Yost in January.
âWatch the cash, watch the law,â Auditor Yost said. âIf youâre a treasurer or trustee and you donât do those things, youâre going to owe the taxpayers some money.â
The townshipâs Dec. 2011 bank reconciliation found $5,849 less in the bank account than in the township books, with no bookkeeping mistakes that would explain the difference. Under the circumstances, the township could not identify the missing funds, and Fiscal Officer Margaret Silliman was held responsible for the full amount.
Four additional findings totaling $5,775 also were issued for mistaken overpayments in salary because the township used the wrong statutory salary schedule. Ohio law sets salaries for township officials based upon the size of the township budget, and changes in budget during the year or from one year to the next can lead to changes in legal salary.
The Miami Township budget dropped below $1.5 million from 2009 to 2010, causing a change in legal salary for both the fiscal officer and trustees. Since the fiscal officer did not correctly change the corresponding payroll, findings for overpayment were issued in the amount of $2,772 against the fiscal officer, and $1,001 against each of the three trustees.
It's been more than two months since the audit results were released and the money still hasn't been repaid.
The fiscal officer says it's a misunderstanding. Her response to the audit tonight on FOX 45 News at 10 and ABC 22 News at 11.