YOUNGSTOWN — A state audit of the city’s 2019 finances found some issues, but noted the resolution of the biggest one for the past two years — the improper use of $4.4 million in general fund money for economic development projects.

The audit, conducted by Julian & Grube of Westerville on behalf of the state auditor’s office for 2019, was made public Thursday.

“We’re pleased with the audit as the big issue has been rectified,” said city Finance Director Kyle Miasek.

One other issue, which was raised before, was how the city allocates a portion of the costs of various departments to the water, wastewater and environmental sanitation funds.

Since 2004, the city has used 70 percent of the cost of operating computer services, board of control, law department excluding prosecutors, finance department, mayor’s office, civil service, city council and housing inspection from those three funds. Also, about 50 percent of the cost of operating the public works department is charged to those funds.

The audit says the percentages aren’t supported by documentation.

“Without a thorough and complete allocation plan, approved by council, the city could improperly charge certain funds, which could lead to financial statement misstatements and / or fund balance adjustments,” the audit reads.

The city hired Maximus Global Consulting Services of Richmond, Va., to develop a model for using those funds for those departments, Miasek said.

The report showed that in 2019, those departments should have charged $2,597,441 to the three funds and actually charged $3,137,829, he said. That didn’t include a $186,000 annual rental fee to the water department for offices in city hall.

The difference is $354,388.

“I’m very pleased with how close we are,” Miasek said. “There’s not a humongous difference. They’re going to do this again for 2020. The auditor’s office wanted something more in-depth and data driven and now there’s a reference point.”

Another issue raised in the 2019 audit that was also in the 2018 report was how the police department paid some officers who worked out-of-rank. The audit showed that officers were paid incorrectly for the extra hours.

The police department also incorrectly gave accumulated time — additional time off instead of being paid — to numerous officers. Two officers were given too much accumulated time they didn’t earn, according to the audit.

“It has been addressed internally and the issue is resolved,” Miasek said.

The audit noted that the city last month addressed a major issue in its 2018 and 2019 audits: it improperly used $4,415,332 from its water fund ($2,653,169), wastewater fund ($1,612,163) and environmental sanitation fund ($150,000), primarily for economic development, when the money should have come from the general fund.

The city had objected to the auditor’s office request to pay the money to the three funds over a period of 15 years.

But because of $5.3 million federal COVID-19 relief funds given to the city last year with $82,775,370 more coming — half this year and the rest in 2022 — the general fund has a healthy surplus that will greatly grow. So city council voted last month to reimburse the three funds.

“We are happy to see the city of Youngstown fulfilling their financial obligations to water and sewer rate payers,” Allison Dumski, an auditor spokeswoman said.