Village president: Our financial house is in order - Opinion - Rockford Register Star - Rockford, IL

 

By John Neitzel

Posted Aug. 22, 2015 at 3:51 PM

The recent article in the Register Star “Village finances a mess” Wednesday is misleading and not representative of the current state of the business in Poplar Grove as it relates to our financial picture.

The current village of Poplar Grove board approved the recent internal controls audit of our financial processes and procedures. While there were many process deficiencies listed in the audit, we requested the audit as the next evolutionary step in improving our processes and procedures and our quality of service to our residents.

As a newly elected official in 2009, the existing board at that time was faced with a $450K deficit. Through some very difficult budget decisions the presiding board was able to erase the budget deficit within two years and even began building a small reserve. Those early years, 2009 moving forward, came with great sacrifice by the board and our residents.

We were unable to make substantive improvements to infrastructure because funds were not available and the board chose not to take on additional debt. In essence we only spent monies on breakdowns and necessary repairs to keep our public works operations functioning. In addition to eliminating the budget deficit, the board was able to refinance the village’s bond debt at a lower interest rate and an improved bond rating that to date has saved our residents nearly $1 million.

For the first time ever since I have served on this board, this year we have established a capital improvement budget and are funding nearly $950K in capital improvements. We are currently operating with a reserve fund equal to eight months operational spend. It took the efforts of our staff and our elected officials to make the progress we have made.

As you can see, the actions described above prevent the village's finances from being warranted "a mess."

Poplar Grove’s evolution from a small rural community of a few hundred to our current population of more than 5,000 residents is representative of growth in our region over the past 20 years. With this growth, the expected services provided by the village grew exponentially. Were processes, policies, and procedures during this period keeping pace with the growth? I would say no. Were there more pressing budgetary and operational issues that prevented the attention needed in this area? Arguably I would say yes.

So let’s fast forward to the present. I would say our financial house is in order. We are operating with a surplus. This internal audit is the next logical evolutionary step that reviews our current processes and makes candid observations of our operation but, more importantly, identifies operational deficiencies and recommends the required actions to make corrections. The bottom line is, of course, to improve our performance to our residents and community. The board, and equally our staff, should be commended for taking this initiative and for their steadfast dedication to the village and maintaining our functional operation in spite of having little to no documented processes.

To cast the results of this audit as a negative for the village is misrepresenting the purpose. We asked for this independent review. Tell us our deficiencies, and provide us the recommendations needed to put in place the necessary controls. This was a bold initiative that very few municipalities have the courage to do.

The intent was not to air our “dirty laundry” and to be criticized for it. The intent was, and still is, to identify our deficiencies and fix them. Together, board and staff, we will.

John Neitzel is village president of Poplar Grove.

Village president: Our financial house is in order - Opinion - Rockford Register Star - Rockford, IL