The commission has contracted with Laird Petrie in his retirement to provide budgeting and accounting technical assistance to towns and villages belonging to one of the region’s five Councils of Governments. Starting the program in October, the commission has fielded nine requests for Laird’s expertise to date ranging from help setting up a capital reserve fund to guidance on basic municipal recordkeeping.
Examples of services Mr. Petrie can provide include:
- Assistance with annual budget preparation, including attendance at budget workshops when requested.
- Assistance with preparation of the Annual Update Document (AUD) required to be filed with OSC each year.
- Training municipal accounting personnel and aid with developing accounting records required by OSC.
- Assistance with multi-year capital plans including establishing, accounting, and reporting for capital reserve funds.
- Assistance with long-term operational plans including the use of various reserve funds authorize by General Municipal Law.
- Assistance with the planning, budgeting and accounting for capital projects including those involving debt and grant funds.
- Assistance local officials with shared service and government reorganization initiatives (dissolutions, consolidations, etc.).
- Assessment of various internal controls and policies and recommendations to governing boards as to how to effectively safeguard municipal assets.
Interested municipalities should contact Jennifer Harvill, Projects Director at the Tug Hill Commission, [email protected] or (315) 785-2380 to request assistance.