Committee Will Oversee Finances : Prep sports: CIF Southern Section will form group in attempt to avoid another budget deficit.

In an attempt to avert a third consecutive annual budget deficit, the CIF Southern Section announced Thursday that it is forming a finance committee to oversee all of the section’s monetary matters.

The five-member committee, to be headed by Principal Tom Triggs of Buena Park High, treasurer of the Southern Section Executive Committee, will hold its first meeting next month and report findings and suggestions to the section’s governing council in January.

The Southern Section, which has a proposed budget of $1.3 million this year, reported deficits of $43,000 for 1991-92 and $112,000 for ‘92-’93.

The losses prompted an investigation into last year’s audit, and that investigation alleged that former Commissioner Stan Thomas had abused his expense account. Thomas, whose job included overseeing the budget, resigned last week and was ordered to pay the section $5,000 restitution. He has said that all his expenses were business-related and therefore proper.

“The Southern Section has always operated on a high level of trust,” said Gary Smidderks, principal of Los Angeles Baptist High in North Hills and president of the Executive Committee. “We never felt a need to monitor such activity.”

Triggs said the finance committee has three main objectives--reviewing the current financial status of the section, examining budget practices and reducing operating expenses.

“Right now, this committee will only be for the short-term,” Triggs said, “but I could easily see it becoming permanent. We want to closely monitor the budget and spending.”