The Vandalia City Council met on Monday, February 19, 2024, at 7:00 PM. The meeting included presentations of awards, introduction of new employees, public comments, approval of two resolutions, and council comments. All votes were unanimous.
The Monday, February 19, 2024, City of Vandalia Council meeting is now called to order. We'll start with a moment of reflection, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag. Please stand for the pledge. Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Corrections. Being none, they stand approved. And that brings us to communications petitions and awards, where we have a presentation of Auditor of State Award of Distinction, Mr. Joe Braden, on behalf of Auditor of State Keith Faber. Well, thank you, Mayor. It's my honor to be here tonight, as you pointed out, on behalf of Auditor State Keith Faber to present the City of Vandalia, the Auditor of State Award with Distinction. This award puts the City of Vandalia in a very select group. The Auditor State's office audits approximately 6,000 entities, and less than 4% are even eligible for this award. The Auditor State Award with Distinction is presented to local governments and school districts upon the completion of a financial audit which meet the following criteria of a clean audit report. I'm going to read through this criteria, Mayor, so everybody knows what it took to make this happen. So please do. The entity must file the financial reports with the auditor state's office by the statutory due date without extension on a gap accounting base basis and prepare an annual comprehensive financial report. Must not contain any findings for recovery, no material citations or material weaknesses, no significant deficiencies, any uniform guidance findings, or any question costs. The entity's management letter contains no comments related to any ethics referrals, question costs less than a threshold per uniform guidance, any lack of timely annual financial report submission, any bank reconciliation issues, a failure to obtain a timely single audit, any findings for recovery less than $500, no public meetings or any public records issues, and the entity shall have no other financial or any other type concerns. I want to, if I may, mayor, tell a quick little story right here. So back when I got this in November, I got this award from uh from Columbus. I came by to drop it off to um Bridget. And yeah, I know it's a few months later, it takes a few months to get our schedules all lined up to be able to present this. But when I stopped by that day, Bridget was having a so-so day. So when I saw Bridget, um I not only had the award for the city, but also had the award for Tri-Cities, North Regional Wastewater, and Northern Area Water Authority. And all three of them, as you guys know, are um done by your City of Vandalia Financial staff. Not only did you guys get one award, you got three awards, which was awesome. And I was it was so exciting, and that made Bridgets a day, and that's always that's always fun to do. This is the fun part of our office where we get to come out and present the awards. I've already presented the other entities at their respectable board meetings, but Bridget, if you'd like to step on up here for a second. This award represents the hard work of all your city employees and the financial staff that make an effort each day to attain accounting excellence. I want to recognize the council members, I want to recognize you, Mayor, the city manager, everybody's done an outstanding job here, watching over every dollar here in the city of Vandalia. But specifically, I want to recognize Bridget Leider for her finance director, for her leadership, her professionalism, and her exceptional commitment to fiscal integrity. Congratulations, Bridget. Yeah, sure can. On behalf of Ohio Auditor State Keith Faber, I would like to present the Ohio Auditor State of Award with distinction. There you go. I think he wants a picture, right here. Congratulations. All right, thank you. I know we're all on council, very proud of Miss Lyder and her staff and the hard work that they put in year after year. It's much appreciated. Again. Thank you. Congratulations. All right. Mayor. Yeah. And I think if Ms. Slider could correct, is this the 31st?