Auditor Jim Stith to City employees: stay home

Here’s the video from yesterday’s Channel 12 coverage of Norwood’s failure to pass a budget for 2011.


2:38 p.m. Addendum: Jim Stith has posted the following response in the comment box:

Dramatic headline, but not quite accurate.

What was actually said is that if Council does not pass appropriations (budget) I would tell my people to stay home. That goes for my employees. I do not have the authority to tell anyone else not to come into work.

Without Council passing appropriations I cannot pay anyone for time worked after midnight on March 31st. I have said this all along. No one has the authority to approve any payroll expenditures without appropriations and ours expired on March 31st. Time sheets are not valid without appropriations.

I did discuss the situation with the law director and we agreed that if Council passes appropriations before the next payroll and indicates that the appropriations cover hours worked between March 31st and the date the ordinance passes I could issue retroactive pay for that time period. Given this discussion I have told my employees they could continue working with the hope that Council will pass the appropriations but there is no guarantee of payment for these services.

Until this happens my office does not have the authority to issue any purchase orders or payroll, we are restricted by Ohio law. We can pay some debts incurred before March 31st. This is why payroll was issued on April 1st.

Jim Stith