State Auditor David Yost wasn’t satisfied with Akron’s response to the concerns he raised about the city’s budgeting practices and is giving the city a month to develop a better plan.If Akron doesn’t, he said, the city will be elevated from the new “fiscal caution” designation to the more serious “fiscal watch” that triggers state oversight.“The plan is disappointing in its cursory treatment of these important matters,” Yost wrote in a three-page letter given to Akron leaders and the Beacon Journal late Thursday. “Although the city’s proposal is a beginning, it lacks substance and sufficient detail to address the fiscal caution issues.”Yost, in particular, wants Akron to eliminate its negative fund balances quicker than it has proposed — by the end of 2013, rather than 2015. He also is requesting quarterly reports showing how the city is addressing his concerns and additional documentation on the changes it has made or is planning.Yost, who released Akron’s 2010 audit on Oct. 5, ordered the city to fix poor accounting practices that led to an $87.8 million fund deficit. He said Akron has been undertaking capital projects without the revenue to pay for them and faulted the city for having too many funds. He deemed the deficit and accounting problems “ a serious matter,” but not a crisis.Akron, as Yost required, submitted a response Nov. 30 that said the city has made progress in addressing his concerns, but would need more time.Akron noted that it has decreased the number of funds from 740 to 140 and issued about $54.3 million in bonds and notes to reimburse the cost of capital projects — both steps that decreased the funds with negative balances. The city said it is expecting to have 20 funds with negative balances totaling about $25 million by the end of this year. And, the city said it likely will take four years — until 2015 — to completely erase its deficits.Akron said the city will have money elsewhere in its budget to cover the deficits, with more funds having positive rather than negative balances. Finance Director Diane Miller-Dawson has said she expects the city to end this year with a carry-over of about $5 million, which is about the same as last year.Miller-Dawson said Thursday evening that the city “took serious steps” and was “very serious when we put together our plan.”“If he [Yost] is unhappy with our first attempt, we are going to continue to make our best attempt to comply with what he is looking for,” she said.Miller-Dawson noted that Yost’s audit of the city was “unqualified,” rather than “qualified,” which is used to indicate serious concerns.In terms of the negative fund balances, Miller-Dawson said many of them are because of federal reimbursements the city is awaiting. “We don’t control when we get reimbursed for grants,” she said. In Yost’s letter, he said Akron should eliminate its negative funds by the end of 2012 “unless there is an explicit and substantiated reason why additional time is necessary.” He said the deficits “in no case” should exist after 2013.The additional documentation Yost requested includes an “identification of the changes to be made to the city’s accounting system and the completion dates” and an explanation of the process for decreasing funds and which funds were eliminated.Yost asked the city to submit a revised plan by Jan. 9. He said his office will monitor Akron’s “progress in completing the items in the fiscal caution proposal and will periodically verify the information provided in the quarterly reports.” He said the first quarterly report must be submitted to his office by April 20 for the quarter ending March 31. “If the city fails to make reasonable progress and meet the completion dates established in the fiscal caution proposal, the city’s status will be elevated to fiscal watch,” Yost said.Stephanie Warsmith can be reached at 330-996-3705 or swarsmith@thebeaconjournal.com.