For Immediate Release:                                                      

November 18, 2020                                                               

City of Maple Heights Released from Fiscal Emergency

Columbus – The City of Maple Heights has regained financial stability after more than five years in a state of fiscal emergency, Auditor of State Keith Faber’s Office announced today.

The Cuyahoga County City of 22,278 people was placed in fiscal emergency on February 13, 2015 in response to the City defaulting on three of its Ohio Water Development Authority debt issuances for more than thirty days and deficit fund balances in two funds in the amount of $589,889 as of December 31, 2014.

“The City of Maple Heights is on the right path and moving toward a more financially stable future for its citizens,” said Auditor Faber. “I applaud the leaders of the City for making the sacrifices and hard decisions that should provide residents a fiscally responsible community.”

To be released from fiscal emergency, the City had to satisfy the following requirements:

• Adopted and implemented an effective financial accounting and reporting system;
• Corrected or eliminated all of the fiscal emergency conditions; no new conditions have occurred and it appears that based on the five-year forecast, the City will remain out of fiscal emergency during the;

forecast period

• Met the major objectives of the financial recovery plan; and
• Prepared a five-year forecast in accordance with standards issued by the Auditor of State and the opinion expressed by the Auditor of State is “nonadverse.”

The City emerged out of fiscal emergency by taking the following actions:

• New economic development in the City has generated approximately $50,000 in additional annual revenue.

• The City has sold capital assets generating approximately $110,000.

• City residents passed a 1.3 mill senior levy in 2015 that generates approximately $340,000 annually that began in 2016.

• City officials increased inside millage by 3.2 mills generating approximately $638,000 annually.  This increase was in the City’s charter but never implemented until 2018.

• City implemented a delinquent property tax collection program. This program generated approximately $173,000 during 2019.

• City has a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Maple Heights Home Ownership Program to help develop Slavic Village, one of the City’s neighborhoods. This MOU has generated $100,000 thus far in building permit revenue while homes in this City neighborhood are being rehabbed.

• City is working its way through the COVID pandemic and monitoring its finances closely.

Currently, 15 entities are in fiscal emergency. The Auditor’s Office Local Government Services works with those financially struggling to get their books in order and address problem areas.

A full copy of this report is available online.

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The Auditor of State’s office, one of five independently elected statewide offices in Ohio is responsible for auditing more than 6,000 state and local government agencies. Under the direction of Auditor Keith Faber, the office also provides financial services to local governments, investigates and prevents fraud in public agencies, and promotes transparency in government.