City corrects budget error of $40,000

The Washington city staff discovered an error in the 2011-2012 budget which miscalculated police salaries by a total of about $40,000 less than what they really were. The Washington City Council passed a budget amendment Wednesday which corrected the discrepancy.

City Administrator Brent Hinson said the $40,000 sounds large but is actually a small fraction of the police?s total budget of about $1.2 million and the city?s total budget of about $9 million. He said a budget is extremely complex and relies on sometimes complicated formulas within spreadsheets. He said the error that caused the discrepancy in the police?s budget was a problem with the spreadsheet used to record employee salaries.

Hinson brought the matter to the council?s attention because he said he wanted the council to know that the police department was not spending beyond its allotment, and that the extra money the department?s budget required was to offset a calculation error.

Hinson said that even with a couple of overages such as the miscalculation in the police department, the city finances are in better shape than the budget predictions. He said the city has ended up below budget on a number of expenditures and has come out better than expected in revenue.

Councilor Fred Stark that the error that caused the miscalculation occurred before Hinson became the city administrator in October.

At Wednesday?s meeting, councilor Bob Shellmyer asked Washington Police Chief Greg Goodman how the wages could have been miscalculated by so much. Goodman said the wages were calculated according to a spreadsheet designed by former city administrator Dave Plyman. Hinson said it is typical for a city administrator to figure wages and is not common for a department head to figure his own department?s wages. Hinson said he calculates the wages for all the city?s departments because he has spreadsheets already prepared to do that.