by 
San Manuel Miner
At a special meeting held Thursday, June 5, 2014, the Mammoth Town Council was informed by Patsy Large that cuts would have to be made to wages and salaries in the amount of $100,000. Effective Monday all public works employees will begin working a 32 hour week and all department heads will take a 5 percent pay cut. A hiring freeze is also in effect.
Department expenditures are being cut. Patsy Large will no longer be using a Town of Mammoth vehicle to commute from her home in Tucson and Public Works Director David Garcia will not take a town vehicle home. All overtime for the Mammoth Police Department will be cut. The town is working on cutting expenditures and is limiting purchasing in preparation for the 2014-2015 fiscal year. They will be doing more budget work sessions to come up with more ideas to save money. Patsy said she expects the cuts to be temporary.
The reason given for the cuts was that state revenues have dropped. Other factors could include the HURF funds which were inappropriately borrowed and according to Mammoth’s June 30, 2011 financial statement audit the balance of those funds had grown to $646,795. It could be more but no financial statement audit has been completed since then. On June 30, 2014, the town will be three years without a financial statement audit. Per Arizona Revised Statute 9-481: Audits shall be made at least once for every two fiscal years for all incorporated towns.
John Hernandez lives in Oracle. He is retired and enjoys writing and traveling. He is active in the Oracle Historical Society. He covers numerous public events, researches historical features and writes business/artist profiles.
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