Linn officials criticize auditor's account questions

Sharply criticized by other elected county officers this morning, Linn County Auditor Joel Miller said he won't request more information on the management of county departments' accounts this year.

“Probably the best outcome is to wait until the (annual) audit is done in two months and review them,” Miller said after the supervisors' work session.

Miller's requests for detailed reviews and legal opinions on departments' independent accounts was the discussion topic for most of the 90-minute meeting. County attorneys and department heads said Miller's effort to prove Linn County is breaking state law are wasting their time.

“A legal snipe hunt,” County Attorney Jerry Vander Sanden said of Miller's requests.

“At some point, I have to be able to say I'm done, let's move on,” said Assistant Linn County Attorney Jeff Clark, who called Miller's requests “a huge waste of time.”

Miller has focused on accounts managed by individual departments to conduct day-to-day business that are funded through fines and fees, not taxes. He says his reading of the state code doesn't turn up the legal authority to maintain those accounts, and that only he can legally write checks from them.

Vander Sanden said the accounts “are not only legitimate and legal, but inherently essential” for county offices to function.

For example, Vander Sanden noted state law gives county recorders authority to issue state licenses for hunting, fishing, boats, and off-road vehicles, and to collect the license fees. The recorder maintains an account for the fees and periodically forwards them to the state.

The independent accounts are audited annually by an outside accountant, and other counties conduct their business as Linn does, Vander Sanden said.

“His response to this is essentially, ‘They're doing it wrong,'” Vander Sanden said.

While he'll hold off for now, Miller said he's not convinced by the departments heads' case. He said he still believes the independent accounts amount to county money.