Auditor: No, Baldwin is not $1.2 million in the red

Contrary to recent media reports, the Banner-Tribune has confirmed that Baldwin is not $1.2 million in deficit.
In fact, Gerald Thibodeaux, a partner at Kolder, Slaven & Company LLC, the firm that provided the local audit that was submitted to the state legislative auditor, pointed to an almost $40,000 lean toward positive growth in the town’s operating statement for the general fund compared to years past, a far cry from the $1.2 million reported deficit.
As reported in Monday’s edition of the Banner-Tribune, Baldwin is, for the first time in several years, now eligible for federal grant funds due to their recent success in implementing and abiding by corrective action plans geared toward righting the town’s financial ship.
Mayor Donna Lanceslin said she doesn’t know where the media misunderstanding of the audit results is coming from. However, she doesn’t deny Baldwin’s financial situation is far from rosy. “A lot of these things that are here (in the report) have been here since I got in here, and it’s not something that I’m going to get rid of overnight, because there is no money in Baldwin,” Lanceslin said. “How can I pay all of the bills when we don’t have the money to do it. We try to save.”
According to the 2017 audit report: The Town’s most significant plans involve performing the following actions to mitigate these conditions:
—The Town has deducted a half hour off the Town’s workers’ schedules weekly, and overtime will be avoided when possible.
—Risk Management will be contacted to discuss the possibility of writing off payables older than three years old. The estimated potential savings is $300,000.
—The Town is currently in the process of reducing insurance payments by eliminating coverage deemed less important. The estimated savings is $5,569 annually.
—The Town is seeking funds from the St. Mary Parish Council to assist monetarily with the Town’s balance due for water purchases. The estimated potential monetary assistance is $60,000.
—The Town will explore debt relief through bankruptcy courts and debt consolidation.
—The Town is considering outsourcing police protection through the St. Mary Parish Sheriff’s Department.
—The Town is considering selling or leasing the Baldwin Community Center to another governmental agency. The estimated proceeds would be $350,000.
—The Town is considering selling the house in the park. The estimated proceeds would be $150,000.
The misunderstanding concerning the exact amount of Baldwin’s 2017 fiscal deficit lay, according to Thibodeaux, in the interpretation of the audit report findings.
Concerning the supposed $1.2 million deficit, Thibodeaux said, “I’m not sure where that number is coming from. When I look at the audit report, I see $1.2 million, but it’s not a deficit.”
He continued, “On Page 7, there is a $1.2 million total, but it is when expenses are matched by revenues generated by individual programs. That is before taxes and grants come into play. So, there are other revenues that come into play to offset that operating deficit. But, that is not a total deficit.
“The total deficit for the city for those funds was only $190,000.
“If you were to go pull any municipality in the state, and look at that number, where that $1.2 million is (in the audit report), I would put money on it that every one of them is in the negative, and for some of them, it is going to be a huge number.”
The town certainly saw its share of financial difficulties in 2017, and most of them stemmed from the water and sewage woes, made worse by the unseasonably cold winter.
Lanceslin pointed to the cost of repairing, rebuilding and managing the town’s beleaguered water treatment system as the major hurdle in correcting town finances more so, last year.
It also bears reporting that at the town council meeting last Tuesday, it was announced that Miller Engineers is preparing to begin work in finally physically utilizing some of the $300,000 in grant funds Baldwin received for the project. The board is just waiting on its final signor of the intergovernmental agreement, signaling better news for Baldwin, than being $1.2 million dollars in the red.
When asked about the corrective bullet points contained in the audit, which recent media reports have also cited, Thibodeaux said they appear on most audits of organizations the size of Baldwin, due to differences between operational expectations and legislative definitions. Yet, he stressed that he is not saying the points are not true, or in some cases accurately portrayed, but that they are in fact more commonplace than being counterproductively newsworthy.
“I’m not going to sugarcoat like Baldwin doesn’t have financial issues,” Thibodeaux said, “but it is a little improved over the last year.
“Baldwin does have some issues, but they are working hard to correct those issues. The findings in the report have been around for a number of years. Some of them (financial issues) they are working very hard to correct, and some of them it may take a little while to correct. But still, I think the path they are on is the right one.”