Guide for District Administrators
Released
After many
months the Guide for Village District Administrators is now available. It is
free to current members otherwise it is $25 plus postage. Many moons ago it
became very apparent that many village districts are very dependent on their
administrators, a number of whom have limited access to resources and
networking. Bob Anderson, now retired as a municipal auditor for the Department
of Revenue Administration, and Carol
Kenneson, recently retired after more than 27 years as the administrator for the
Plymouth Water and Sewer District, put their heads together and produced the
manual that we now have.
There are
eight chapters. The first chapter provides an example of a typical
organizational chart showing the relationship between the
Board of Commissioners and the Administrator and other employees. The
details will differ between different districts depending on size
and resources. For the larger districts, the administrator may have staff
to help but many districts have only one person who is expected to fill a
variety of operational functions.
After the
introduction, Chapter 2 provides an example of an annual calendar with tasks to
be addressed each month. The emphasis is on getting ready for the Annual Meeting
and meeting statutory deadlines but other issues are covered, such as the
Consumer Confidence Report that Water Districts have to distribute to their
consumers by June 30th.
Chapter 3
provides general information on financial issues, the different kinds of
meetings, meeting minutes, the right to know law and ordinances.
Chapter 4
deals with audits and management discussion and analysis.
Chapter 5
reviews all the reports required by the Department of Revenue Administration and
when they need to be filed.
Chapter 6
discusses some practical problems associated with nonpublic sessions, details on
capital reserve funds and schedules for bond payments.
Chapter 7
deals with a very important topic for district administrators, that of internal
controls for financial transactions. It includes a checklist to assist a
district in determining the internal control level.
Chapter 8
gives some samples of local policies, ordinances and job descriptions.
The manual
comes in a three ringed binder to
accommodate revisions and future additions. It is free to current members or $25
for nonmembers.