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PARKERSBURG - Wood County Sheriff Rick Woodyard recently addressed county commissioners about the way the budget is calculated for an assessor's office fund that had an estimated $357,000 shortfall.
A letter provided by Woodyard to commissioners says more information is needed to determine the source of the error. The sheriff also discussed money labeled as recorded in "incorrect accounting categories" within his department's tax office.
Wood County Assessor John Kelly has been looking at ways to address the shortfall by cutting expenses, having already let two people go from his office. He is seeking an audit of his office, including looking into whether money might have inadvertently been put into a different line item. County officials have referenced something like that happening in the sheriff's tax office.
Appearing before commissioners Monday, Woodyard addressed the concern about $750,000 found to be recorded in "incorrect accounting categories" in the tax office.
"Through diligence ... we discovered that money was simply there, but it was just logged in different categories," he said. "It was never gone, missing, and there were no nefarious reasons for it or anything like that. It was simply placed in the wrong categories.
"The money was reassembled and put in the proper categories for expenditures."
Those findings have been turned over to the state auditor's office for a second review.
"We feel the money we get is posted correctly now," Woodyard said.
Officials in the tax office are not sure how the assessor's office ended up with a $400,000 figure for a holdover in the valuation fund when starting their budgeting process the past couple of years.
Commission President Blair Couch asked Kelly if he knew how his office arrived at that figure.
"I am not sure," Kelly responded, adding it initially came from people in his office.
Couch believes the number may have been copied over to the new budget for the last couple of years. Kelly believes that the $400,000 carry over amount was constant for at least two years.
In Woodyard's letter, he said he wanted to provide the commission with "additional information and clarification regarding how the Assessor Valuation Fund is funded, distributed, reconciled and accounted for" as well as what role the Wood County Sheriff's Tax Office has in the process.
The amount of money the fund is expected to receive is established each year through the valuation fund reconciliation process, the letter said. In July, a reconciliation was prepared using the sheriff's final settlement from the previous fiscal year, along with information provided by the State's Auditor's Office. That process establishes the annual amount expected to be distributed to the fund, subject to final reconciliation with actual collections.
The monthly distributions are based upon 2% of the taxes collected from the levying bodies that contribute to the Assessor's Valuation Fund. There are 14 levying bodies that receive tax distributions in Wood County, but the fund receives this 2% from only six of them: Wood County, the school levy and the cities of Parkersburg, Vienna, Williamstown and North Hills.
"This is an important distinction," Woodyard wrote. "The Assessor Valuation Fund does not receive 2% of all taxes collected in Wood County.
"The applicable percentage is applied to the regular levies that are subject to the valuation-fund contribution."
The fund's tax distributions are not an estimate or a discretionary payment. The sheriff's office issues the check to the Assessor's Valuation Fund with distribution reports and receipts documenting those transactions
There are other deposits made into the Assessor Valuation Fund, including $3,000 to $4,000 monthly from the Wood County Clerk's Office.
"Our staff has not identified any document prepared by our office that established or reported that approximately $400,000 carryover figure," Woodyard wrote. "If that figure was used in preparing the budget, I believe it is reasonable to ask that the sources and calculation supporting that figure be identified."
Woodyard wrote that the tax office has made their records available to the accountants working with the assessor's office on these matters.
"If there is a $300,000-plus discrepancy, then I respectfully believe the calculation supporting that figure should be identified, including the starting balance, expected revenues, actual deposits, expenditures, transfers and ending balance," Woodyard wrote. "Doing so would allow the Sheriff's Office, Assessor's Office, County Commission and accountants working on this matter to determine exactly where the difference arises and whether it is the result of an accounting entry, a carryover calculation, a classification issue, or some other matter."
Contact Brett Dunlap at bdunlap@newsandsentinel.com