October 25 County Board Meeting

There is a very important agenda item on the October 25 County Board Meeting.  Now that the investigation is complete, a motion has been brought forward calling for a vote of no confidence in County Treasurer Jane Merten.  You can read more about the motion on Washington County Insider at washington-county-board-calls-for-no-confidence-vote-in-county-treasurer-merten/.

My perspective on this:  The core responsibility of the County Treasurer is to safeguard the county funds.  Basically, she is there to make sure that other county officials, like the County Administrator, the County Clerk, the Register of Deeds, etc... are not stealing money. She does this by setting up and enforcing internal controls.  Internal controls are the accounting language for procedures to check and make sure transactions are legitimate.  Since this transaction was spoofing Josh's e-mail, her job was to make sure Josh wasn't stealing money, by closely reviewing the paperwork (such as an invoice).  How can she do this if there was no paperwork?

This is concerning to me.  While it may be the first incident that we know of, I am concerned that there either might be more incidents that we have not discovered yet.  Worse yet, I am concerned that there will be more incidents in the future.  In my H.R. background, I have fired people for less than this, both as a consequence for what happened, as well as a preventative measure for what could happen.

These thoughts form the core of my mindset as I prepare for the upcoming County Board meeting.