Budget Commission Tables Berkshire’s Inside Millage
Shift Resolution until Special Meeting on April 22 at 7 pm
Budget Commission Meeting – March 17, 2025
Meeting Details: The Geauga County Budget Commission met in Regular Session on Monday, March 17, 2025 at 10:00 am in the Auditor's Conference Room, 215 Main Street, Chardon, Ohio. The meeting was in person with a virtual attendance option via MS Teams.
Meeting Attendance: Prosecutor Jim Flaiz, Treasurer Chris Hitchcock, and Automatic Data Processing Chief Deputy Administrator Frank Antenucci (substituting for Auditor Chuck Walder, who attended virtually).
Staff Attendance: Deputy Auditors Tammy Most and Kristen Sinatra and Chief Operations Officer Pam McMahan attended in person. Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Kristen Rine attended virtually.
County Staff: Budget and Finance Manager Adrian Gorton and Engineer’s Office Administrator Katie Taylor attended virtually.
Berkshire School District Staff: Dr. John Stoddard, Berkshire Local School District (LSD) Superintendent; Beth McCaffrey, Berkshire LSD Treasurer; John Manfredi, Berkshire School Board President, and Linda Stone, Berkshire School Board Member.
Members of the Public: Allison Charlton, Ken and Karen Klein, Laurie Taylor, Rebecca Klein, Erica O’Neill, Maria Englert, Elisabeth Clark, Rachel Hess, Lydia Robinson, David Tiber, Megan Marina, Laura Carver, and Alexandria Jackson all attended in person and wrote their names on the sign-in sheet. It is possible that there were more attendees who did not sign in. This LWV Geauga Observer and one other member of the public attended virtually.
The meeting was called to order at 10:00 am.
Minutes: Minutes from the Special Meetings on February 19, 20, and 24, 2025 were all approved. The minutes will be posted here when available.
The following Revenue Certifications were approved:
Reviewer Note: An explanation of the different types of funds in revenue certifications can be found here.
Observer Note: The Budget Commission requests that all entities provide beginning balances for all
funds within 90 days of the start of the year. Most of the following amendments are simply
certifications of fund beginning balances for 2025.
This amendment certified East Geauga Fire District’s beginning balance for 2025.
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Hambden Township - Amendment #1. $1,271,443.51 in the general fund, $3,176,686.42 in special revenue funds, and $424,152.40 in capital project funds for a total of $4,872,282.33.
This amendment certified Hambden’s beginning balances for 2025.
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Thompson Township - Amendment #2. $466,250.61 in the general fund, $1,763,807.28 in special revenue funds, and $1,550.67 in special assessment funds for a total of $2,231,608.56.
Thompson’s amendment reflected a $15,000 increase in the general fund.
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Claridon Township - Amendment #1. $842,313.57 in the general fund and $1,643,009.46 in special revenue funds for a total of $2,485,323.03.
This amendment certified Claridon’s beginning balances for 2025.
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Bainbridge Township - Amendment #2. $4,301,900.37 in the general fund, $19,857,296.60 in special revenue funds, $1,843,788.74 in debt service funds, $3,903,724.59 in capital project funds, and $539.79 in fiduciary funds for a total of $29,907,250.09.
Bainbridge’s amendment reflected a $378,740.90 increase in the general fund.
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Chardon Township - Amendment #1. $1,034,295.89 in the general fund, $3,359,393.98 in special revenue funds, $43,667.93 in debt service funds, and $746.48 in fiduciary funds for a total of $4,438,104.28.
This amendment certified Chardon Township’s beginning balances for 2025.
This amendment certified Chester Township Park District’s beginning balance for 2025.
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Newbury Township - Amendment #2. $1,776,898.97 in the general fund, $4,093,745.92 in special revenue funds, $965,588.24 in debt service funds, $511,344.33 in capital project funds, and $35.64 in special assessment funds for a total of $7,347,613.10.
Newbury’s amendment reflected a $575,000 increase in debt service funds. Ms. Sinatra said this
was necessary to make a payment on the loan for Newbury’s fire station.
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Middlefield Village - Amendment #1. $3,188,279.47 in the general fund, $10,894,345.39 in special revenue funds, $1,582,129.12 in capital project funds, $5,756,123.26 in enterprise funds, and $150,604.04 in fiduciary funds for a total of $21,571,481.28.
This amendment certified Middlefield Village’s beginning balances for 2025. Ms. Sinatra noted that Middlefield Village has a new software program and problems associated with the software changeover prevented them from submitting the carryover balances for the new year. Therefore, the numbers reported above are “without adjustment to beginning cash.”
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Geauga Park District - Amendment #2 - $11,359,142.22 in the general fund and $1,832,355.98 in capital project funds for a total of $13,191,498.20.
Geauga Park District’s amendment reflected a $694,482.27 increase to the land improvement capital project fund.
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Geauga County - Amendment #5. $69,339,402.59 in the general fund, $125,112,841.50 in special revenue funds, $5,172,649.58 in debt service funds, $1,143,702.06 in special assessment funds, $29,495,528.76 in capital project funds, $52,169,898.85 in enterprise funds, $1,739,600.37 in internal service funds, and $4,706,706.85 in fiduciary funds for a total of $287,962,167.56.
Geauga County’s amendment reflected increases of 1) $168,163 in special revenue funds and 2) $750,000 in capital project funds.
The following Revenue Certification was re-signed:
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City of Chardon - Amendment #1. $15,037,524.93 in the general fund, $10,016,068.55 in special revenue funds, $375,784.14 in debt service funds, $9,417,221.57 in capital project funds, $7,419,122.82 in enterprise funds, $8,054.18 in internal service funds, and $183,991.68 in fiduciary funds for a total of $42,457,767.87.
City of Chardon’s amendment certifying the beginning balances for 2025 had to be re-signed to correct a misunderstanding regarding the unencumbered balances.
Other Business: Berkshire School District Resolution Authorizing an Unvoted Permanent Improvement Levy
Observer Note: At the February 26, 2025 Berkshire Board of Education meeting, the Board passed a resolution shifting 2.5 inside mills from the general fund to permanent improvement (PI). This resolution requires Budget Commission approval to go into effect. Additional background information is available in the LWVG Observer Report for the February 10, 2025 Berkshire Board of Education meeting.
Mr. Flaiz said that he had received the documentation from Berkshire regarding its resolution to shift inside millage a few weeks ago and that he and Assistant Prosecutor Kristen Rine had been researching the matter to be better prepared to consider the resolution. He noted that this is a “unique situation” because Berkshire is asking for an inside millage shift outside of its normal budget submission. Observer Note: Berkshire’s budget submission was considered by the Budget Commission on February 20, 2025; the LWVG Observer Report on Berkshire’s budget hearing is available here. Mr. Flaiz said that he and Ms. Rine were unable to fully complete their research due to competing demands on their time, including having a Court of Appeals brief due and an (unspecified) urgent matter for the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC). Mr. Flaiz suggested tabling Berkshire’s resolution in order to give his office time to complete their research. He also noted that considering the resolution at a later date would enable them to find a bigger space for the meeting. Observer Note: Numerous members of the public were present at this meeting, presumably due to their interest in Berkshire’s resolution. There was not enough seating for all attendees.
Mr. Antenucci said that he lives in the Berkshire school district and has had a number of other district residents reach out to him to ask questions about this resolution at meetings and events that he has attended. He supported tabling the resolution until a public discussion could be held. He suggested holding this meeting in the evening so that more people would be able to attend outside of work hours. Mr. Flaiz agreed with having an evening meeting and suggested having public comment on the front end of the meeting.
Mr. Hitchcock felt it would be important for Mr. Walder to be physically present to consider the Berkshire resolution because he cannot vote while attending meetings remotely. He noted that a delay would allow the opportunity to learn more about the history of resolutions like this before making a decision.
Mr. Walder said his phone has been “blowing up” over the last few weeks with questions about Berkshire’s resolution. He said he would support a special evening meeting to ensure that district residents have the chance to get their say.
Mr. Walder communicated that, from a tax collection standpoint, there was no rush to consider Berkshire’s resolution because the Budget Commission has until the end of the year to decide on tax collection matters. He noted that it was more time sensitive for the school district because they want to be able to plan. Berkshire Treasurer Beth McCaffrey agreed that the district would not be able to plan without knowing whether or not the Budget Commission would allow the inside millage shift to occur. Mr. Flaiz pointed out that if the district ends up wanting to seek revenue from residents via a voted levy, the deadline would be in August to get on the November ballot. Ms. McCaffrey said the deadline would actually be July in this case to allow time for the Board to pass a resolution. She went on to say “you clearly saw (at the February 20 Budget Hearing) how bad our cash balance was, so this (resolution) would be fixing that cash balance so we could keep moving forward.” Ms. McCaffrey also said that the district’s five year budget forecast (required by the State) was due in May, so she would prefer that the Budget Commission consider the resolution in time for its decision to be a part of that submission.
At this point, calendars were consulted by all. It was determined that April 22, 2025 at 7:00 pm would work for everyone. Ms. McMahan said she would reserve a conference room at the County Office Building for the meeting.
Mr. Flaiz moved to table Berkshire’s resolution shifting 2.5 inside mills from the general fund to permanent improvement until a special Budget Commission meeting on April 22, 2025 at 7:00 pm at the County Office Building. The motion passed unanimously.
Public Comment:
This observer requested a copy of materials from the meeting, which were received via email on March 17, 2025.
The meeting was adjourned at 10:25 am.
Next Meeting: The next meeting is a Special Meeting for the Review of County Levied Departments Budgets and Regular Business on April 7, 2025 at 10:00 am in the Auditor’s Appraisal Conference Room, 231 Main Street, Chardon, Ohio. Virtual attendance is available via Microsoft Teams by emailing an invitation request to Ms. McMahan at pmcmahan@gcauditor.com.
Observer: Sarah McGlone
Editor: Anne Ondrey
Reviewer: Carol Benton
Submitted: 3/18/25
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