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NILES -- The city treasurer said the city has collected $380,000 more in income taxes than predicted for this point in the year.
The city also will save money because a bank change has led to utility customers helping to shoulder bank fees.
Janet Rizer-Jones also rebuffed a statement made by one of the city's state-appointed fiscal supervisors at Wednesday's meeting of the Niles Supervision and Oversight Commission.
Tim Lintner said he wasn't receiving reports from the treasurer's office with enough notice before the meetings.
"I send him everything on the list. Anything he asks for, I send," Rizer-Jones said. "I have no idea what the problem is; we are reconciled on time every month, and I never heard from him that he wasn't getting anything they needed."
At the meeting, Lintner said the issue was timing, and Council President Robert Marino suggested Lintner request a deadline to have the reports if they are coming too late to incorporate in a report for the fiscal commission.
That would be fine, Rizer-Jones said, noting it seems like communication is the problem.
"I think we are in a good place, compared to this time last year. We are now on the online checkbook. We have the business gateway, which allows businesses to pay their withholding tax to us, and we are tracking the people who aren't filing returns in the city who filed state returns now," Rizer-Jones said.
She became treasurer during the middle of former Treasurer Robert Swauger's term, when he resigned because he didn't have the time to dedicate to the position, he said. The resignation came after months of failing to provide the commission with reconciled books.
Rizer-Jones said she has made other positive changes -- the city is saving money after switching to Farmers National Bank, a process that is nearly complete. Although the exact amount it has saved isn't yet known, several fees it had to pay with Huntington National Bank were eliminated, but there were some costs the city had to pay to close out the service, she said.
A couple of city offices are still waiting for the correct payment processing machines from the new bank before making the switch between banks. But, overall, the process has gone smoothly because of careful testing and analysis, Rizer-Jones said.
And the addition of a 2.95 percent fee for utility customers paying with a credit card is going to pay a big chunk of bank fees the city was paying for the processing of those payments, Rizer-Jones said.
Documents Lintner provided show the city paid out $73,135 in those fees in 2015, $186,529 in 2016 and were on schedule to pay $206,298 this year. Rizer-Jones said there is no way the city will have to pay that much now.
Her office has been running smoothly, Rizer-Jones said. It has enough staff to complete all of its tasks and isn't missing people because of layoffs like last year. And, Rizer-Jones said, the office has streamlined its processes, ensuring tax season went smoothly and deposits were made in a timely manner -- a problem the office had in the past.