The DeKalb County Solid Waste Disposal Fund has a deficit of $931,422 in unrestricted net assets, according to the state comptroller’s office.
County Mayor Mike Foster sat down with the Review Monday to discuss some of the audit’s findings.
According to the mayor, the finding apparently sounds much worse than it actually is.
Foster told the Review that state authorities figure in the amount for the entire period that the county must provide maintenance for a landfill site, which is a period of 30 years.
“That one is sort of a Catch-22,” Foster said. “We put $200,000 in the account for this year, and the balance is $1,669,863.
“The almost $3 million that the comptroller would like to see in the account reflects the cost for our 30-year obligation to upkeep on the landfill, and there is no realistic way that we can put the whole amount in the bank to cover the entire 30 years.”
The comptroller also noted variances in the beginning fund balances of the General, Local Purpose Tax, General Debt Service, and General Capital Projects funds, but as it turns out, three of the four funds have excess capital, and the fourth is under because of unforeseen expenditures at the new county complex.
“We tend to estimate on the high side for obvious reasons when it comes to budget matters. Three of the four funds that the comptroller found fault with were actually above what we estimated by small amounts, and the General Capital Projects fund was slightly less than estimated because we had unforeseen expenses at the  new office complex.”
The comptroller also found deficiencies in payroll records in more than one county agency.
It was found that time cards were not being properly signed off on at the landfill and that an employee of the sheriff’s department’s hours were not being properly logged.
“The auditor told us that one of the sheriff’s employees, who is on salary, should be filling out time cards,” the mayor explained, “We didn’t realize we should be doing this because he is not an hourly employee, but it is an easy fix. We are simply going to keep up with his time like everyone else.
“The supervisor at the landfill had not signed or initialed all of his employee’s time cards,” Foster continued, “We plan to see that they are properly signed off on from now on.”
Finally, the audit found deficiencies in collection procedures for tipping fees at the landfill, which the mayor said can be easily fixed by a change in procedure.
“The landfill doesn’t take in a large amount of money on tipping fees, and sometimes the time it took to get them from the safe at the landfill, to my office and then to the trustee’s office took more than the three days the comptroller specifies,” Foster said.
“We were also not giving the landfill a receipt from the county when we did receive the fees. We have started having the supervisor take the tipping fees directly to the trustees office, and the trustee will give him a receipt. That should correct the problem.”
Foster noted that none of the findings were serious infractions, and that all of the problems could be rectified by a few procedural changes.
“We were pleased that none of the findings were very serious, and that all of the problems can be solved with a few changes in the way we do things.” the mayor said.