MARION—Marion City Council held a meeting Tuesday night and discussed the ongoing issues around Marion City Auditor Robert Landon and his inability to reconcile the city’s books. According to previous reports, the books can not be audited. For the city to be eligible for federal grants and monies, audit reports must be filed by September 30th, a deadline that is rapidly approaching.

According to Council President Ayers Ratliff, the Ohio Auditor has declared the books not reconcilable.

“I have sounded the alarm on this for two years. There’s no evidence of auditable books for this year either.” Ratliff said.

Without the audit completed and the books reconciled, the city cannot qualify for federal grants that support police and fire services, the airport, and public transit. Those grants amount to $2.5 million.

The meeting between the State Auditor’s Office, Marion Mayor Scott Shertzer, Council, and the software company New World whose services have been used by Marion to train and assist the auditor’s office, was disappointing.

According to experts, the auditing system is a moving system meaning you can’t go back and correct such issues. That means this next year may also not be auditable, costing the city millions more in funding.

Auditor Landon, who was recently released from the hospital and continues to recover from COVID, was not present at last night’s meeting.

Deputy Auditor Marden Watts told the city that the books for this year are reconciled, but he doesn’t know if they are correct. When Ratliff pressed him on books for July being correctly reconciled, Watts told the council that it was a 50/50 chance. He was simply not sure.

A frustrated Ratliff has watched the Freefall with few options to stop it.

Under the previous auditor, the city received the 2019 Auditor’s Award of Excellence given by the  Government Finance Officers Association.

“This is catastrophic. Marion will feel this for years to come. I have never seen a less involved public official in my 16 years in office,” Ratliff said.

When Landon took office, he brought his own staff with him replacing many employees with years of experience in the Auditor’s Office.

As a result, Landon lost the valuable experience those employees brought to the city.

Options on how to move forward regarding Landon’s future are being pursued.

“One man really can take a city down,” Ayers sadly declared.