FRANKLIN - The school board has suggested that a mediator meet with the board and city council members to discuss the school district's auditing process after city officials complained this week about the timeliness of the school system's budget reports.

Finance officers from the school board and the city council had been scheduled to meet on Tuesday of this week, City Manager Elizabeth Dragon said. The city is awaiting the school district's budgets from 2011 and 2012, she said.

But school district officials said they needed to move the meeting to Wednesday so the school district's finance officer could meet with the city's finance office in order to present a complete report.

The district notified City Councilor Glenn Feener, the council's representative for the schools, that the school district auditors were not available to meet with the school district until Wednesday, "and it would be prudent to reschedule the joint finance after that meeting took place," said School Board Chairman Ray Yonaitis.

That notification was not immediately received because of an email error, Dragon said. But even when it was received, it caused concern because the city needs the school's budget information to set the city tax rate, and because a creditor and other organizations with financial dealings need the city's complete budget report, including the school's budget needs, she said.

"The schools are already 16 months behind on 2011's report," Dragon said. "The city's financial statements for 2011 and 2012 are waiting, and we need to get the tax rate out in a timely fashion, and that by itself can take time."

Yonaitis said school district officials are working to present the figure to the city in the same timeframe that is usually used.

"The school and city financial forms are due to the state by Sept.1, but this deadline is rarely met. The process of correctly completing the forms requires the gathering of detailed information on the financial operations of the schools," Yonaitis wrote in an email to The Union Leader.

"This information has been gathered and the form is in process … the forms will be completed and ready for the Franklin School Board to approve and sign on Monday, Oct. 22," he said.

"The date of Oct. 22 is an improvement of two weeks from the 2011 submission date," he continued. "In reviewing the dates that the city of Franklin has set the tax rate over the past five years the date was as early as Oct. 30 and as late as Nov. 20. In the year that the rate was not set until Nov. 20 and the city, to my knowledge was not required to suspend payments or discontinue operations of any kind."

"If the forms are filed during the week of Oct. 22 the city should not have any problem in having the rate set earlier than in recent years," he wrote.

Yonaitis said Steven Grzelak of Grzelak and Associates has offered to mediate a joint finance meeting between the city and the district "to further assist the city in the understanding of the school audit process."