Staff report
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Even though it no longer exists, The Crawford Regional Planning Commission did receive one final award – for a clean audit report.
Auditor of State Dave Yost announced that the now defunct Regional Planning Commission for the county received one of five Auditor of State Awards his office issued across the state for clean audit reports.
The other agencies to receive the award were Boardman Local School District in Mahoning County, the city of Bellbrook in Greene County, the city of Monroe Falls in Summit County, and the Scioto County Regional Water District #1 in Scioto County.
The Auditor of State Award is presented to local governments and school districts upon the completion of a financial audit. Entities that receive the award meet the following criteria of a “clean” audit report:
• The entity must file timely financial reports with the Auditor of State’s office in accordance with GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles);
• The audit report does not contain any findings for recovery, material citations, material weaknesses, significant deficiencies, Single Audit findings or questioned costs;
• The entity’s management letter contains no comments related to:
o Ethics referrals
o Questioned costs less than $10,000
o Lack of timely report submission
o Reconciliation
o Failure to obtain a timely Single Audit
o Findings for recovery less than $100
o Public meetings or public records
The Crawford Regional Planning Commission officially disbanded on July 23 of this year. The reason given was that there was no funding to keep it going.
“The Regional Planning Commission was an information center within the community,” Commission member Dale Sipe continued. “The more you know what is going on in a community the more you feel a part of that community.”
What funds were left when the entity disbanded were used to pay for the state audit, a premium due for Worker’s Compensation and the remainder divided up proportionately among the townships and cities who were members.
Any equipment the Crawford Regional Planning Commission had was transferred to the county’s organization for economic development.