Clayton braces for more cuts

Anticipating a multimillion-dollar deficit this year, the Clayton County Commission has ordered county departments to cut 3 percent from their budgets.

“It was apparent that because of the state budget cuts, we’re going to have a shortfall,” Chairman Eldrin Bell said Wednesday. Bell said he is still reviewing the numbers and doesn’t know how much the shortfall will be. Initial estimates placed the deficit at $17 million.

Commissioner Wole Ralph, county finance committee chairman, said department heads already identified 3 percent cuts in their budgets last year. He insisted there will be no layoffs or cuts in residential services.

Moody’s Investor Services has threatened to downgrade Clayton’s bond rating. The state auditor and KPMG auditors also have cited accounting deficiencies in the $168.5 million annual budget.

Bell said he couldn’t repair the county’s financial problems until the commission OKs an outside audit of the Finance Department. Finance director Angela Jackson did not return calls Wednesday. Her supervisor, Chief of Staff Alex Cohilas, also did not return a phone call.

Police Chief Jeffrey Turner said that department is slated to end the year with a $1 million deficit because of problems in the way the Finance Department calculates personnel costs.

“If you shutter the doors, shut off the lights and stop the patrol cars, we still don’t have 3 percent to give them,” added Lt. David Ward, who manages the police budget.