Between hammering out an operating budget for 2012, replenishing Iola’s depleted water utility fund and working in step with a governing body that’s been in office all of four months, Carl Slaugh has quite a bit on his plate.
So much so, that Iola’s new city administrator has had little time for a few noteworthy tasks.
Like finding a home.
“I imagine I’ll be staying in a rental house for the time being,” said Slaugh, 63, hired to replace the retiring Judy Brigham.
Brigham’s 31-year career with the city — the last five as city administrator — ends Sept. 16.
“If we had no overlap with the previous administrator, then these things might be more difficult to handle than they are,” Slaugh said. “Judy has been very helpful. She has a good reputation with the city and staff. The employees respect her.”
As for the issues facing Iola, a quick check of newspapers across the country reveals other communities have ones identical to Iola’s, Slaugh said.
“We’re certainly not unique,” Slaugh said.
Getting the city’s budget squared away has been first on Slaugh’s agenda.
City council members have submitted a $26 million spending plan for 2012, a budget slated for ratification Aug. 22. The budget is virtually identical to this year’s, Slaugh noted, with property tax levies essentially unchanged.
“Once those decisions were made — that the budget wasn’t going to change much from last year — it’s a matter of balancing what to give to each department,” Slaugh said.
MUCH ATTENTION during the budgeting process focused on how numbers for certain funds changed from one report to the next.
The problem, Slaugh said, centered on the spreadsheets used by council members as they researched the history of some funds over the past several years. Those spreadsheets were not the same reports submitted to the state — they never are — because long-term history has no relevance on the state reports, only current spending levels. The long-term history, however, gives council members a better grasp of trends.
And in recent years, Iola switched from cash basis to an accrual accounting method, and then back to cash basis. The different accounting methods — one relies only on cash on hand for its accounting purposes; the other includes unpaid bills — led to different year-end figures for funds even though budget authority was unchanged.
And if that was not confusing enough, Slaugh discovered a number of outdated or flawed accounting formulas for certain funds. The bottom line was that even though spending hadn’t varied, the reports in many cases indicated it had.
Those formulas have been removed, Slaugh said — a precursor to presenting this year’s spending plan to the state — which should clear up confusion for council members.
“We finally decided to make a clean cut, to remove all of the formulas and start over,” he said.
WITH THE budget largely in the council’s rear view mirror, decisions won’t get any easier when talk turns to Iola’s water rates. Iola’s water utility fund has operated at a deficit for at least four years, losing about $300,000 annually. To keep the fund solvent, commissioners have transferred money from Iola’s wastewater utility fund.
To break even would require an across-the-board rate hike of 11 percent, Slaugh said.
“The water rates have to go up,” he added, noting they had been unchanged since 2005.
The ideal rate structure would keep the water fund solvent and adjustable for inflation, Slaugh said, to ensure the city does not lose money. Also, there is Iola’s annual $731,000 loan payment to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment to pay for the treatment plant. Payments run through 2024.
BECAUSE he and council members are new, Slaugh has spelled out plans to bring to the council specific topics to research in depth on a monthly basis, such as Iola’s purchasing policies, revamping some of the city’s charter ordinances and manpower levels.
That, he explained, will give both sides a firm grasp on how the city functions.
He lauded the council members’ efforts to hit the ground running after they took office.
“We have a council that is already very well versed on a number of issues,” Slaugh said. “They are energetic, they want to do a good job and they’re willing to put in the time to research specific issues.”
He also promises to help the city and Allen County maintain a cohesive, friendly relationship.
SLAUGH’S CAREER path would have taken a different course had a teaching position or two opened up earlier. He retired from a 20-year Air Force career with the thought of teaching.
He and wife Cheryl moved to Lawrence, but too late to find a teaching opening for the upcoming school year in his specialty.
Undeterred, Slaugh returned to college himself. Over four years he earned a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Kansas in 1998. He then worked for two years as a capital improvement coordinator in Merriam.
From there, he served four years as city administrator in Hiawatha and three more in Basehor. Slaugh resigned his post in Basehor in 2009 after city council members there failed to extend his contract.
He has embraced Iola already.
“I’ve approached every job I’ve had with the thought that I would be comfortable working there until I retire,” he said.
OVER THE PAST few years, much of Slaugh’s spare time was compiling a book about his immediate family’s history.
The 465-page tome, “Owen and Verona Slaugh: A Family Legacy” was published in November and includes a multitude of stories about Owen and Verona Slaugh — his parents — their children and grandchildren.
Owen Slaugh was deceased before his writing project began. His mother died in January 2010, before the final version was published, “but she was able to see the first draft,” he said. “I’m pretty proud of it.”
Slaugh’s wife, Cheryl, works as an administrative assistant at Johnson County Community College. The couple have five grown children.
