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Posted: 10/17/12

Village wants CMC audits
before contract approval

by CHRIS GRAY
Observer Staff Writer

      The Village of Romeo Board of Trustees wish to review an audit from Washington Township's Community Media Center (CMC) before going forward with a renewed service contract.
       At their Oct. 15 meeting, village trustees said they agreed to a modified contract with Washington Township to provide local cable studio services for another three years, but wished to see the revenues and expenditures as well as proposing additional changes to the contract before approving it.
       Romeo and Bruce townships currently provide 95 percent of their cable franchise fees to the CMC as part of the contract, and Washington Township has a contract with MiCommunity Media to run the CMC. The contract states the parties must meet eight months prior to its expiration to discuss renewal.
       Village President Mike Lee said while the village trustees seem to concur with the revised contract, they want to see the financial information first.
       "It's just a visual reference for us to see where they're spending the money," he said after the meeting.
       Village Attorney Mark Clark said an audit for the CMC operations from Oct. 1, 2010 to March 31, 2011 has been provided, but the village hasn't received audits for any other period after that.
       "Those last two audits, to my knowledge, haven't been furnished," Clark said.
       Trustee Ron Rossell said Washington Township is either providing more of a percentage into the CMC or is taking more out of it, which is what he would like to see from an audit. Other board members agreed to wait until they received the audit, and expressed having no issues with the revised contract.
       Village officials said the CMC's audit information will be available Nov. 15 for the board to review.
       Village Clerk Marian McLaughlin noted the revised contract removes the requirement for an annual audit of the CMC operations to be provided to the customers. Lee said the reason given for removing the audit is due to the CMC being a contracted service, much like a landscaping company, and therefore no audit is required.
       He said, though, that landscaping is a service they can see being done, and an audit would provide the proof of the CMC doing its contracted work.
       The contract states the CMC will generate revenue from other sources other than the provided franchise fees, and that 100 percent of any excess dollars over agreed upon quotas will be shared with the townships. The first year would have a quota of $33,000, followed by the next full year of April 2014 to March 2015 at $44,000. The final year would have the cap set at $48,000.
       Lee said the CMC didn't meet those original goals during the first three years of the contract, so seeing the audit would give the village a better idea of how close the CMC was to those goals.
       He suggested altering the contract to provide a 5 percent to 10 percent return of funding so the CMC doesn't simply wait for the following year to make any adjustments for reaching the quotas.
       "It's kind of a safeguard in there to try to give them the ability to get a little bit more money for us by having them reach their goals every year," he said.
       Lee said a third party could be brought in to discuss the contract if any aspects are to be disputed. The current contract expires in June.