Auditor: Mauldin is in "Very Sound Financial Condition"

The highlight of Monday night’s City Council meeting was a glowing review of Mauldin’s financial state from S. Hunter Howard, a managing partner in Scott and Company, the firm that audited the city’s financials. 

Howard told the council that the city is in “very sound financial condition.” He added that the most recent fiscal year combined “an increase in revenue and decrease in expenses that will serve the city well over the long term.”

Howard also noted that for the ninth consecutive year the city was recognized for excellence in financial reporting.

Finally, Howard mentioned the five percent increase in employment by Mauldin’s top 11 employers. “Not many cities in South Carolina have a financial report this good,” Howard said, noting the city's budget surplus was an unanticipated $1.3 million.

Review the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report attached to this story as a pdf file.

Howard’s remarks come after fiscal management was a key issue in the Nov. 8 election. Mayor-elect Dennis Raines and city council candidate Larry Goodson each made the city’s finances the main points of their respective campaigns, citing the incongruity of a new $45 per year trash collection fee in the face of a budget surplus as an example of mismanagement.

As a means of means of comparison, the trash collection fee in Greenville is $150 per year.

After the session adjourned, City Councilman reiterated Howard’s statements as a way to respond to criticisms by Goodson, his opponent in for Seat 6.

“In one of the campaign fliers sent out to voters and reported elsewhere prior to the election, my opponent stated that there was an increase in revenues that led to the surplus,” Reynolds said. “What it comes down to is that there was more revenue than we anticipated from the state. The bulk of it was unspent expenditures, which means that we were good stewards with citizens’ money. What was stated in the flyers was a misrepresentation and false.”

In addition to direct mail campaigns, signs appeared around town over the weekend from anonymous sources criticizing Reynolds as being responsible for the trash fee. Reynolds noted that his was only one of six votes.

Councilwoman Patricia Gettys took issue with the signs in a good-natured way—on grammatical grounds. “If you’re going to criticize someone you should at least get the grammar right,” she said, noting punctuation errors in the signs.

When the trash fee became an issue before the election on Nov. 8, other media outlets had reported that the fee might be reviewed and possibly revoked during the next council meeting. However, no citizens or candidates appeared to protest the fee before City Council on Monday evening, nor have they appeared at any meeting since the fee was approved in June. City Council member-elect for Seat 4 Scott Crosby was in attendance on Monday, but did not speak. Crosby disagreed with the fee, but did not make it the centerpiece of his campaign as Goodson has. In an prior to his election Crosby said, “The town is not badly run by any standard.”

Also:

• The City Council unanimously approved the renewal of Scott and Co. as the city’s auditors for the next two years for fees of $21,100 and $21,700, respectively.

• The City Council unanimously approved the implementation of BlueChoice as the provider of health insurance for city employees. BlueChoice will charge an eight percent increase, well below what other providers were offering and well below the increases that other municipalities were seeing. 

• City Administrator Trey Eubanks said the construction work on Route 276/Main Street is on schedule to be completed by April 2012.

• Despite weather delays, the work on the is still under budget.

• Fire Chief Russell Sapp said that the bulk of the work on the is complete. However, cabinets for the building have yet to be installed, causing unanticipated delays. City officials indicated they have met with the sub-contractor responsible for the installation of the cabinets and expressed their desire to see the work completed as quickly as possible. According to Eubanks, if the cabinets have not been installed by November 30, completion of the project may be pushed into the new year. The project was originally scheduled to be completed in early November. Delays in the cabinets are also holding up plumbing and electrical work.