Council hears 2022 budget report

City Council received a presentation about the 2022 fiscal year audit during the March 27 meeting. It received feedback about the improvements that could be made for the next fiscal year’s audit report.

Sikich, LLP Representative Mike Williams spoke to City Council about the 2022 fiscal year audit presentation. Williams was not able to attend and presented from a Zoom call.

Williams presented three reports in total: the annual comprehensive financial report, the single audit report and audit communications. The purpose of this was to inform the council of all the changes from the prior year and give feedback to keep improvements going.

Williams said there were many improvements compared to the prior year’s audit report. The net financial position experienced several improvements throughout the year.

“It looks overall that the city was over budget on revenues and under budget on expenses,” Williams said. “That’s generally the right way to be.”

The biggest changes from the prior year to the 2022 fi scal year were caused by the South Main Corridor Improvement. It is expected for grants received and larger projects to cause fluctuation.

Mayor Tye Parsons thanked

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CONTINUED FROM A1 those involved for the work that was put into making the report and was happy with the outcomes.

“I’m just pleased as punch at the position our city is in and the work that our staff has done to really put Maryville in a position where we can really stand head over shoulders above our peers and be able to produce some really outstanding services for our citizens,” Parsons said.

The report gave the city some recommendations, being to update the credit card policy and employee manuals. Williams said the updates are being worked on already and will

“As you decrease services, you don’t need as many people to work,” Viau said. “... Hopefully they’re done, but it depends on if the corporate comes back and says ‘nope, now I need you to cut this much.’”

With the contract with Aramark coming to an end May 15, it’s trying to save money and cutting back on many things. Wing Wednesday is another example, this was something extra added by Aramark and now it is not necessary for them to continue providing this because it is not in the contract.

Sophomore Cleo Wills said she is not happy with the cut in food options.

“I already feel like there’s not a wide variety of things that they have, at least healthy things,” Wills said. “I feel like I eat a burger everyday.”

Many Northwest students have taken to social media sites to complain about the cuts. Healthy options is something that students are concerned about as well. Viau said a lot of the feedback she is receiving from students is about the lack of healthy options. She said Aramark is still required to have a certain number of healthier options from all food

Retention

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The vendor will come back with a proposal for steps that can be taken to be more competitive to ensure Northwest is in line with others in the industry.

“It was just to help us ensure that we have a true compensation philosophy and consistent practice when it comes to the pay of positions,” Barcus said.

There is not a set timeline for the study to be finished, but it started in January. Barcus said she hopes to have results and feedback to present to faculty, staff and the Board of Regents sometime by August or September.

In September 2022, the Board of Regents approved a be updated for next year. Positive fund balances were seen in all of the categories, such as assets and liabilities. Compared to prior years, there were significant increases in the amount of capital improvements.

“The city was able to get that information done accurately and on time,” Williams said. “That’s a positive report, I think.”

Williams said Maryville received a Certificate of Achievement for excellence in financial reporting for last year’s audit report.

Other City Council Business:

• Council voted yes on a subaward agreement for funds granted to groups, and it is still following it.

Viau said it is hard when there is false information being spread, and she is happy to explain to students what is happening and why it is happening.

She said Northwest’s ground team with Aramark does not have a say over what is being closed and that Aramark has full control over that at a corporate level. Viau said the team is still trying to have fun events for the students, and it is doing its best.

The head chef for Northwest from Aramark Sara Tompkins did not receive approval from Aramark for an interview in time for publication.

$1,500 one-time retention payment for all full-time employees, both faculty and staff

The criteria to receive this payment was that the employee had to be employed as of Oct. 1 and still employed as of Feb. 1, and they were not in an active Performance Improvement Plan.

Assistant Vice President of Finance Mary Collins said Northwest was able to use some of the money related to COVID to recognize some of the employees staying with Northwest.

“I really believe that the board gave that retention payment to recognize the people who are staying with the University, working through all of those things with us and doing it all for the good of the students at Northwest,” Collins said.

This is a one-time payment, and Barcus said there is no plan to budget something like this payment again.

Collins said though Northwest did not have to do reductions because of COVID, recruiting new people is always difficult.

Barcus said both of these initiatives will help Northwest and its faculty and staff. She said Northwest’s Leadership Team has its focus on what it can do for Northwest’s people going forward.

“I think the biggest thing for both of these initiatives is we’re really trying to, as a strategic investment, focus on our people,” Barcus said. “... We think that these two initiatives really speak volumes to the value that we put into our employees.” the Public Safety Department for the new mobile radios.

• Council approved a hay lease agreement with Robert Waldeier for hay harvesting at Mozingo Lake Recreation Park.

• Council approved a hay lease agreement with Fast Farms for hay harvesting at Mozingo Lake Recreation Park.

• Council voted to approve a hay lease agreement with Brian McGary for hay harvesting at Mozingo Lake Recreation Park.

• Council voted to start a contract with United Electric Cooperative for service upgrades at Mozingo Lake Recreation Park.

Culture

Obioma M Nwuba is the president of ASO, and spoke about the event. Nwuba helped with the planning of “Taste of Africa.’’

“I have been a member since I got here as my sister was here,” Nwuba said. “So, I knew I was interested in the African Student Organization before I actually came to Northwest because she was the vice president at the time, so she would send us pictures and fun stuff.”

A meal will be provided from authentic African stores in Kansas City, Missouri and neighboring cities. There will be fried rice, Jollof rice, fish and chicken.

“We had a number of options, we’re just saying that we wanted to introduce new things,” Nwuba said. “So, we started with Asaro, which is like yam porridge, as opposed to something like Swallow (cooked starchy vegetables or grain) because people don’t really know how to get that, and we don’t want people extending themselves, so just try to introduce that like that, one after the other, but we have more things people are used to like rice.”

There will be a showcase in which members of ASO will be holding flags that are a delegate of the countries represented.

“It’s something we’ve always tried to do every year,” Popoola said. “Because we always want to get together, express our culture and bring something to Northwest just so everyone on campus can feel that African culture.”

ASO will be preparing transition documents, have elections, applications and interview executive committees.

SOPHIE WILLIAMS Copy Editor @williams2sophie

During conversations lately, I have found myself asking people where they get their information. A common response has been ‘TikTok.’

This isn’t uncommon as from 2020 to 2022, the percentage of U.S. adults who say they get their news from TikTok has tripled from 3% to 10%, according to the Pew Research Center.

Not only do I find less credibility in what they are telling me, but it also blows me away how much people depend on TikTok for information — more so than other websites. It’s not just information regarding entertainment, news or politics, it’s information we should probably be getting from professionals.

Yes, it’s bad to believe every piece of news and gossip you see on TikTok, but that has been an issue across all social media platforms for a while now.

The percentage of U.S. adults, ages 18-29, who get their information on TikTok, has increased from 9% in 2020 to 17% in 2022. This is the age where people are more impressionable and are now getting their information regarding relationships, health, well-being and overall life advice.

Someone is probably out there right now, believing their relationship is in shambles because a video on their for you page is telling them the person with ‘this letter name is getting cheated on,’ and it happens to be the letter of their name.

If you are having relationship issues, I suggest having an honest talk with your partner or going to couples therapy. You know — talking to a professional instead of airing your dirty laundry publicly and taking the advice of strangers on your profile telling you to break up.

Also, what happened to medical diagnoses by professionals? Doctors and mental health providers are concerned about the uprise in self-diagnosis due to misinformation online. Self-diagnosing can be worse for mental health, leading symptoms of the true illness to worsen, according to the Highland Springs Clinic.

A TikTok user will post a 30-second video of themselves and suddenly, they’re being diagnosed with ADHD by people in the comment section. If you think you have ADHD, see a medical professional. Don’t listen to the random ‘experts.’

You don’t need to lose weight if your doctor tells you you’re healthy just like you don’t need to gain weight if your doctor tells you you’re healthy. If you have been feeding your dog the same brand of food for the last five years, you don’t need to suddenly change its diet because TikTok said to do so.

The attention span TikTok has molded for its users is too small, now we rely on short videos to satisfy us. All I can say is, try reading a book. If you don’t like reading, watch a movie — it still requires a longer attention span than TikTok does.

Summing it up, we rely on TikTok for so much — entertainment, relationship advice, medical diagnoses and more. We need to go back to relying on our original sources, like our doctors and therapists.

OUR VIEW: