Lorain Council passes 2024 budget

LORAIN — Lorain City Council passed its 2024 permanent budget during a special meeting Monday evening. The ordinance, which allocates spending and projects revenues through the end of the year, does not set the budget in stone. Councilman Joseph Koziura, D-at Large, reminded fellow councilmembers "This is a living, breathing document." "We've got all year to move things around," he said. The legislation required a special call for passage, as Council had to allocate it funds and send it to the county by the end of the month. Confusion surrounding changes made between a March 11 Finance Committee meeting and a regular Council meeting on March 18 prompted members to push the vote to March 25. At Monday's session, which included a Finance Committee meeting, Koziura said the changes made between the month's prior meetings had been discussed at the March 11 meeting. Many of the line items changed were to correct misappropriations — including a $91,000 item in the Law Director's budget that should have never been in his department, Koziura said — and a reduction in projected utility costs to bring the items more in line with previous years' actual expenses. Chief Deputy Auditor Anita Harper said she also reduced the debt service, as she was only estimating when crafting the city's temporary budget. The deputy auditor position came up for discussion during Monday's special call as part of an ordinance that would have allowed the city Auditor to appoint a deputy to act in their absence. Harper said the legislation before Council was her idea — prompted by the sudden departure of former Auditor Karen Shawver, who vacated her elected position in Lorain to take an appointed deputy fiscal officer role in Sheffield. "Before I knew who was going to be here, I had to do what I felt was in the best interest to protect the Auditor's Office," Harper said. Shawver announced her resignation in a letter to The Chronicle-Telegram on March 12, with plans to leave her elected position March 22, to take an appointment as deputy fiscal officer in Sheffield starting March 25. Shawver's resignation touched off at least two appointments: One from Mayor Jack Bradley and another from the city's Democratic Central Committee. Ohio Revised Code allowed Bradley to appoint as of Monday an interim auditor — Tim Williams — to run the department while the Central Committee scheduled a meeting to find a permanent replacement. The committee will meet April 11 to select Shawver's replacement, who will hold the seat through 2025. In 2025, an election will be held for someone to carry out Shawver's full unexpired term, which runs through 2028. The Democrats' interim appointee could run for the rest of the term, or someone else could be appointed to the ballot. Williams is acting in a managerial position as interim auditor. The proposed ordinance would allow the sitting auditor to appoint a deputy to complete the auditor's duties in their stead, but it would not supersede the mayor's ability to place an interim auditor in the role until the city's central committee could seat a permanent replacement. Bradley said he didn't think it was needed. "I'm not exactly sure why we need to pass an ordinance that really has never been necessary since 1953 when it was originally introduced," Bradley said. Council ultimately tabled the proposed legislation 10-1, with Josh Thornsberry, D-8th Ward, voting against the legislation. Contact Carissa Woytach at (440) 329-7245 or cwoytach@chroniclet.com.