Columbus City Administrator Invited To York To Discuss Budget Issues

COLUMBUS - Columbus City Administrator, and former York City Administrator, Tara Vasicek has been invited to York to discuss discrepancies regarding the status of the City's budget. An article published by the York News-Times on Thursday night contained statements from City Administrator Joe Frei, clarifying the budget issues that the city is facing. In the article, Frei states that in the six years from 2010-2011 through 2016-2017, the City's General Fund revenues increased by 19.7% while General Fund expenditures increased by 77.8%. Frei says that this is the reason unrestricted reserve funds have been used to cover deficits. Vasicek made a public records request to the City of York on August 4, asking to review the 2017-18 financial records. Vasicek provided the following statement to the York News-Times on August 7 regarding her findings: “The statements recently made by the mayor and administrator in York are concerning to me and to the community my family and I once called home. I also believe they are inaccurate. When I left York, the financial position of the city was healthy. The records prove that. I believe the situation in York currently is a combination of poor management and unrealistic expectations of municipal government in the budget, not an issue of previous years of management. I made the public records request to verify this. At this time, the York City Clerk has verified that the general fund cash reserves are approximately $16 million, which is substantially similar to previous years. The ‘problem’ that the York mayor is trying to convey is not that York is broke but that they do not have enough revenue to fund what they want included in the city’s upcoming budget. These are two starkly different ‘problems.’” Frei noted in his statement that most of those funds are 'restricted' funds, and can only be used for specific purposes. The statement also says that findings from the York City Auditor claim that the City’s unrestricted General Fund reserves declined by $3,372,352 during Vasicek's last 3 years as the York City Administrator. Vasicek has been invited to the York City Council meeting on August 16 to discuss the differences between her findings, and those of the York City Auditor. At this time, it is unknown whether or not Vasicek will be in attendance at the meeting.