ENGLEWOOD — For the fifth consecutive year, City of Englewood Director of Finance Della Stearns earned the Ohio Auditor of State Award for excellence in financial reporting.

Joe Braden, west regional liaison for the Ohio Auditor State’s office presented the award to Stearns at the Feb. 27 meeting of Englewood City Council.

It’s a great honor to be recognized by the state of Ohio, and I appreciate my staff and all of the staff that work here in Englewood for a fabulous job,” Stearns said. “I can’t thank my staff, and even the city staff that doesn’t work in finance enough for their support. The service center guys that write purchase orders for me follow the rules that I have set, and I can’t say enough for that.”

Stearns credits her staff in the finance department for their diligence in checking to make sure every purchase order has been approved and filled out correctly. Her staff will even check her work.

“We all hold each other accountable in the finance department,” Stearns noted.

Before presenting Stearns with the award on behalf of Auditor of State Keith Faber, Braden commented that it was great to be back to present the award on an annual basis.

“As you all know, this puts the city of Englewood in a very select group,” Braden said.

He informed members of council that the Auditor of State’s Office audits nearly 6,000 entities every year and only a very few are eligible to receive the award.

The award is presented to local governments and school districts which meet criteria of a ‘clean audit report.’

• The entity must file financial reports with the Auditor of State’s office by the statutory due date, without extension, via the Hinkle System on the GAAP accounting basis;

• The audit report does not contain any findings for recovery, material citations, material weaknesses, significant deficiencies, Uniform Guidance (Single Audit) findings, or questioned costs;

• The entity’s management letter contains no comments related to:

o Ethics referrals

o Questioned costs less than the threshold per the Uniform Guidance

o Lack of timely report submission

o Bank reconciliation issues

o Failure to obtain a timely Single Audit in accordance with Uniform Guidance

o Findings for recovery less than $500

o Public meetings or public records issues

• The entity has no other financial or other concerns

“This award represents the hard work of all your city employees – your financial staff and everybody who make an effort each day to attain accounting excellence,” Braden said. “I want to recognize all your council members, the city manager, mayor, and everybody here that has done an outstanding job watching over every dollar here in the city of Englewood.

“I especially want to recognize your Finance Director Della Stearns for her outstanding leadership, her professionalism, and her exceptional commitment to fiscal integrity. Congratulations Della,” Braden added.

“On behalf of Auditor of State Keith Faber, I want to present the city of Englewood the Ohio Auditor of State Award,” Braden stated as he presented the award to Stearns.

Reach Ron Nunnari at (937) 684-9124 or email [email protected].