MUNCIE, Ind. Muncie officials say they're getting the city's finances under control after starting Mayor Dan Ridenour's administration with multiple city accountsin the red.

Ridenour sat down with The Star Press at the beginning of the year to explain the city had multiple accounts withnegative balances totaling more than $3 million.

City officials attributed the negative account balances to major issues in accounting practices. At the end of 2019, 18of the city accounts were showing a total negative balance of $3,310,928.

Fast forwardsix months into Ridenour's administration and those numbers have gone down significantly.

The city released a report on Wednesday showing that as of June 30, the total number of negative accounts hadbeen reduced to 10, totaling $1,254,333 in the red.

While that amount is still high, it takes the city's negative balances down by a little more than $2million.

Reducing the number and amounts of negatives is a major victory for the city, and I am proud of the team who all played a role in this effort, Ridenour said in a release.

Ridenour has been outspoken about the need for a keeping a closer eye on spending, something he'd been promising since the the election last began last year.At the start of 2020, department headschanged accounting methods, and worked closely with the mayor's office to bring the negative accounts under control.

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Theimprovement, according to officials,was made through departments combing through the accounts and finding out why they were so far in the red. Multiple accounts had outstanding payments that had to be made, as well as money owed to the city in reimbursements they then collected.

Other ways of balancing them came down to curbing spending, whichwas achieved without cutting anyfull-time staff, according to officials.

The city's community development office ended 2019 with 11 accounts with a negative balance, but that number is now down to 6. The Mayor's EDIT account, which was also in the red by $250,000, is no longer negative, now showing a balance of $108,479.

Other accounts are still in the red, including one each within the police department and the street department.Muncie's road and streets account is still negative, but has regained nearly $900,000 in six months.

Ridenour told the Star Press on Thursday the administration was confident it could continue to make progress in fixing the city's negative accounts before the end of the year.

Corey Ohlenkamp is the city/county government reporter. Contact him via email at cohlenkamp@muncie.gannett.com or by phone at 765-213-5874. Follow him on Twitter at @Ohlenkamp.

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City administration makes progress on negative accounts - The Star Press