Village Of Valleyview

Mayor Asks State Auditor For Fiscal Watch Determination

Dec 22, 2003

Mayor Graves during her last days in office has requested that the State Auditor make a Fiscal Watch Determination of the Village of Valleyview. Below is her letter to the Auditor requesting that the Auditor declare an immediate Fiscal Watch for the Village of Valleyview.

Mayor Graves in an interview stated that she hoped that the Village would be able to fix the problem but based on the individuals elected to office for the Village she felt she had to write the letter.

Mayor Graves will have left office by the time the State decides to make the determination and will not be associated with the Village Administration that will have to deal with any of the ramifications that come about from a declaration of a Fiscal Watch status if the State chooses to make that determination.

For more information about a Fiscal Watch please visit the Auditor of State's website at http://www.auditor.state.oh.us/ and follow the links under publications to the Village Officer's Handbook. Chapter 4 covers Fiscal Watch and Fiscal Emergency. You will need adobe acrobat to be able to access the file.

Village of Valleyview
432 N. Richardson Avenue
Columbus, Ohio 43204
Office of the Mayor
Raylene Graves
[614] 279-5630

Ohio State Auditor
December 5, 2003
Betty Montgomery
88 East Broad Street
Columbus, Ohio 43215

Re: Fiscal Watch

Ms. Montgomery;

I am requesting your office to declare an immediate Fiscal Watch for the Village of Valleyview.

Four new council members, including myself, took office January 2002. I was President Pro Tem.
I became Mayor April 1, 2002, when Michael Russolillo resigned as mayor. It was found by the
audit of 2000-2001, that over $100,000 had been mis-appropriated. This included $23,000 to
Public Employee's Pension Fund, $37,000 plus interest and penalties to Internal Revenue Service
dating back to 1 998, $13,500 to Ohio Police and Fire, State Taxes and several vendors the Village
owed.

We have disbanded the Police Department due to financial problems. They are not selfsupporting
and the Police levy doesn?’t generate enough to support it alone. We could not meet the
Police payroll any longer without depleting all other monies so Council made this decision. At
this time, payroll isn't being met for Council or the Mayor due to low funds. We are barely
meeting basic utility bills and we still have old invoices to pay.

Previous audits have shown that un-explained adjustments have been made. For years, money
from Mayor's Court wasn't deposited as the law required. In the fall of 1998, it wasn't deposited
for four months. It was only done in time for t he audit.

I have tried with the help of some council members to get the finances in order, but to no avail.

Former mayor Michael Russolillo stated every January "the Village is in the best financial shape ever". The Village is not in good financial shape. We need to get the spending under control and I feel the best way to do this is to request that the Village of Valleyview be placed on Fiscal watch.

We have some new administrators coming in that made campaign promises that consist of
spending more monies that this Village does not have. If this Fiscal watch does not happen I fear
this Village will go away and I know the majority of the residents do not want that to happen.

Sincerely,

Raylene Graves
Mayor, Village of Valleyview