Village sheds state oversight program after 8 years
Dave Thompson, assistant chief of the Ohio Auditor Office’s Local Government Services Section, presents West Mansfield Mayor Kim Kerns with a framed certificate that officially terminates the village from eight years of state fiscal oversight. (EXAMINER PHOTO | REUBEN MEES)
After eight years under the watchful eye of state auditors, West Mansfield was officially released from fiscal emergency during a Monday evening presentation that drew several state officials to the eastern Logan County village.
The presentation of the framed certificate was a dubious honor, in some regards, village officials said. While it essentially marked the transition from really bad performance to a return to an acceptable level, they also see how the process helped them navigate the storm of lost state funding while preparing the village to stay fiscally sound well into the future.
“The reduction of local government funds didn’t help speed things up,” Village Administrator Dave Evans said of the past eight years. “But if we hadn’t had the state auditors here, I don’t know if we would have been sharp enough to account for that impact.”
Read complete story in Tuesday’s Examiner.
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