By Jordan Gentile
Enquirer Columbus Bureau

COLUMBUS - The agency in charge of helping Clermont County's mentally retarded residents is asking for new tax money and promising to change the way it operates.

A state audit released this week shows the agency needs to raise more money, improve its accounting system and increase the quality of care. Auditor Betty Montgomery says the organization is operating responsibly.

The county's Board of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities has been embroiled in controversy this year because of what board members described as an unwillingness by the previous superintendent, Rory Banziger, to discuss the agency's financial problems.

Now the board has a new superintendent and, with the audit report, a road map that officials hope will prevent deficits that looked inevitable by the end of next year.

"We were, as a group, forced to look at the operation very closely and reflect on what we're doing," said Sharon Woodrow, who became superintendent on May 26.

Echoing criticisms that had been made by the board, the report confirmed that the agency hadn't done enough to communicate its financial needs to the public. According to the state auditor's office, the organization is projected to have a $1.5 million deficit by fiscal year 2005.

Responding to the report's prediction that additional local funding would be needed, the board voted this week to ask the County Board of Commissioners to put a 0.75-mill levy on a coming ballot.

A 0.75-mill levy expired at the end of December, and voters defeated a 1-mill levy in November.

In addition to financial management, technology was highlighted as the agency's other major shortcoming. New business software and the hiring of an information technology specialist were recommended.

County commissioners requested the audit in February because of the agency's organizational troubles.