County Committees: Finance

County Committees: Finance

Like the Environment Committee, which I wrote about last week, the Finance Committee has a large scope of responsibilities, specifically dealing with the money matters of St. Clair County. As the saying goes, if you want to find out why something is or isn't happening, follow the money! This is one of 15 standing committees created in the County Administration Code (section 1-2-3).

Finance Committee

This Committee shall:

1. Determine and approve the total amount for personnel and non personnel expenditures in all departments of County government.
2. Supervise all County finances, including, but not limited to the annual budget appropriation ordinance, tax levy, claims and expenses.
3. Exercise continuous review of expenditures in order to preserve proper balance between budgeted amounts and expenditure amounts.
4. Recommend fees and salaries, where they are not otherwise fixed by law.
5. Review official bonds provided by statute.
6. Review and direct all insurance programs.
7. Review all audits of departments and special funds.
8. Establish a centralized office for all County employees for personnel records, benefits, insurance and the retirement program.
9. Supervise the procedures, policies and administration of the Director of Purchasing, to assure proper implementation of the County "Purchasing Code".
10. Supervise the awarding of purchasing contacts (sic) for the County Board.
11. Review and approve budgetary requests of the Mental Health Board.
12. Prepare a personnel code for County employees.
13. Review the annual audit to determine what action is required to implement the recommendations made by the outside auditing firm.
14. Assist each department in the implementation of each recommendation as it pertains to that department.
15. Report to the County Board the progress of the implementation.
16. Review all special audits and their recommendations.

The Finance Committee provides oversight of the spending of the County: personnel budgets, equipment, supplies, facilities and more of all Departments. When Departments overspend, the Committee should provide accountability for the managers. On the other hand, when Departments stay within budget or even return money to the County because they were able to "do more with less", the Committee should ensure that no corners were cut or services withheld, and reward those Departments appropriately.

Fees and salaries are often one of the most visible aspects of government spending: the Belleville News Democrat has a database on its website dedicated to tracking the salaries of public employees across the Metro East. The salaries of elected county officials are set in the County Administrative Code; the version linked goes through 2016 -- I assume the salaries have been static since that year.

Illinois statutes give local governments (Chapter 50) several instruments for borrowing money and issuing bonds. The Finance Committee is responsible for ensuring the bonds and debt of the County are in accordance with the statutes and other laws as applicable.

The Finance Committee provides oversight of the Purchasing Code and the position of Director of Purchasing (I'll leave my comments on the qualifications for another time!) The responsibilities of the Finance Committee for purchases include approving sole source procurement and overseeing the awarding of contract bids. The Code establishes a "Purchasing sub-committee" of the Finance Committee to handle additional duties.

The Boards and Commissions Code, Article II establishes the St. Clair County Community Mental Health Board. Members of this board are appointed by the County Chairman with the advise and consent of the County Board. Funding for the activities of this Board come from a 1% tax on "all taxable property in St. Clair County."

The Personnel Code is the County's version of an Employee Handbook "provide[ing] employees and management with information pertaining to the employment policies and procedures applicable to all County employees." In a commercial business, this type of document would be created by the Human Resourced department, for the County government, it is created by the Finance Committee.

St. Clair county has an annual audit conducted and the Finance Committee is responsible for reviewing the auditor's recommendation and implementing any improvements provided. The Committee also reports to the County Board as the changes recommended and the progress of those changes. These audits are public records and can be found under the Auditor's department Audit page.

If you made it to the end here, thank you! I do appreciate feedback on these write-ups, whether they are useful to you or if you have other questions about the work of the County Board, shoot me an email.

See you next week!