Daniel Prince
Feb 22, 2023
$1.4 million added to city's general fund last year
The City of Union received its audit results at the City Council meeting Tuesday evening. Marcy Loucks with McKinley Cooper and Company made the presentation at the meeting. The city received a clean, unmodified opinion on its audit, which is the highest and best opinion an auditing company can give. There were no findings to report in the audit, which is also a good thing. Loucks said the city improved its net position for the year, growing the general fund by $1.4 million. When the budget for fiscal year 2021-2022 passed, the city was anticipating a deficit of over $650,000, so the growth marked a $2 million turnaround for the city. Loucks said the city has enough in its general fund to cover 8.7 months of expenses. Auditors like to see a general fund balance that can cover at least 6 months of expenditures, so Houcks said the city is in great shape there. The utility fund increased during the last fiscal year, as well. Houcks said there is enough in the utility fund to cover 10.35 months of expenses. She noted the city has increased its general fund in 8 of the last 10 years, and the utility fund increased in each of the last 10 years. She praised Finance Director Laura Hembree for her work in getting everything needed for the audit and said that the clean opinion and no findings in the audit shows that the finance department is doing a great job.
In some of the other highlights from the meeting, City Attorney Larry Flynn presented an ordinance for first reading involving a change in Chapter 16 of the City Code. Section 4 deals with assault and battery, and section 5.1 has to do with public disorderly conduct. Flynn said the Public Safety Department and the courts wanted those sections to be looked at and changed to clear some things up. The current code combines assault and battery and public disorderly conduct into a single section, while the proposed new ordinance lets section 4 deal solely with assault and battery, and then splits section 5.1 into subsections a and b to define disorderly conduct and to define what “public” means in relation to the charge. Council passed first reading of the proposed ordinance unanimously.
Council also unanimously passed a resolution to provide a $15,000 local match to a $50,000 grant for which the city is applying to the Appalachian Regional Commission. The grant would be used to fund a plan to revitalize the downtown area.
Another resolution council unanimously passed is a pledge to practice and promote civility in government. The pledge states, “I pledge to build a stronger and more prosperous community by advocating for civil engagement, respecting others and their viewpoints, and finding solutions for the betterment of my city or town.” The Municipal Association of South Carolina is advocating for municipalities across the state to pass resolutions pledging to practice and promote civility, as one of their top goals is to restore civility in government.
We’ll have more from the meeting in future newscasts.