County officials admit mistake in letter

Whitman County Commissioner Greg Partch and Auditor Eunice Coker erred in their Jan. 20 statement about the source of local funding for the county’s new elections office.

A letter written to voters and reported on in the Gazette said portions of this year’s $443,000 remodeling and the $105,571 roof on the building in 2009 were taken from real estate excise tax proceeds, which can only be spent on county infrastructure.

“No property tax or current expense dollars were used,” Coker and Partch stated in their letter.

The two county officials issued the letter to counter what they described as “word on the street criticism” of spending on the project.

This week, the two county officials admitted the project was partially funded by money from the current expense fund, the county’s general operations fund.

Most of the project - $360,000 - will be reimbursed to the county through a grant from the federal Help America Vote Act.

Partch said the county originally intended to use excise tax funds for the project, but the $225,000 that was budgeted was instead used to put a new roof on the county jail.

“It was all on me. Let’s put the blame where it belongs,” said Partch. “I remembered we had (excise tax proceeds) earmarked for elections, but I didn’t remember that it got displaced.”

Only a portion of the grant dollars could be used to replace the roof, because not all of the building will be used for the new elections office. The back of the building is used to store county maintenance and emergency management equipment.

Coker said she knew some of the funds came from current expense, but did not notice the mistake in her quick review of the Jan. 20 letter. She said the letter was penned by Partch, and she gave it a cursory review before giving him the approval to send it out to media outlets.

“That letter shouldn’t have gone out until this week - after I had more time to review it,” she said. “You can call me stupid, but you can’t call me a liar.”

Most of the remodeling work is finished on the project which started in July at the former Harrison Electric building.

Only furniture remains to be installed. Coker estimated the office will be open for voters in late February or early March.