County financial statement ready for state audit

Whitman County Auditor Eunice Coker pressed the send button Tuesday afternoon to ship out the county’s 2010 financial statement to state auditors, making the May 31 deadline for the first time since 2003.

“It’s a big red letter day for Whitman County,” said Commissioner Greg Partch. “We’ve done an amazing thing here.”

Partch said Tuesday was the end of his own personal Groundhog Day, referencing the Bill Murray movie in which Murray’s character wakes up to find the same day repeating itself. For Partch, hearing each year since 2003 that the statement would not meet the state deadline was his version of Groundhog’s Day.

“Now, I finally woke up to the next day,” he said.

Stuck in that infinite loop, Partch led efforts last June to sack Bev Divine, former head of the finance department, and re-organize the county’s financial management. Divine took over the financial department in 2003.

Commissioner Michael Largent opposed Divine’s firing, but was out-voted by Partch and Commissioner Pat O’Neill. Largent said Tuesday he still disagreed with the decision.

“It was definitely more difficult not having that historical information,” said Largent. “Irregardless of what the decision is, you’ve got to move ahead.”

Largent said Divine was unfairly blamed after being given too many tasks without the resources to accomplish them.

Partch admitted Divine had too much on her plate. Along with preparation of the financial statement, Divine had been tasked with implementing the county’s half-million dollar New World accounting software, which was purchased in 2005 at her recommendation.

Once the finance department was dissolved, the New World responsibility was assigned to Chris Nelson, director of the county’s information technology department. Financial duties were divided among county departments.

“We split the baby. We put New World with Chris, who’s done a wonderful job of seeing it through,” said Partch. “Then on the financial side, we were able to do that.”

New World was put into service April 1.

Gary Petrovich, county administrative director, said the new software was instrumental in compiling the 2010 report.

Auditor Coker took over responsibility for the financial statement after the finance department was dismantled.

Coker said the biggest factor in meeting the state deadline was the decision to file the statement in the simplified “cash” format, which shows only the county’s financial status at the end of each year.

Prior to this year, the county had prepared an accrual statement, which provides more detail into the total value and the scheduled depreciation of the county’s assets.

“I think moving over to cash was the biggie,” said Coker.

The county will still prepare a detailed accrual report for its records, but that report will not be audited by the state. Petrovich said the accrual report will be used to ensure account balances are firm as the county looks at this year’s budget.

Still, Coker credited a team of county officials for making sure they met the May 31 deadline after last year’s staff overhauls.

“It’s been a really good team that worked an incredible amount to get this done,” said Coker.

Among those was outside accountant Elias Siriani of the Spokane firm of Anderson Peretti. Siriani has been contracted by the county to review and compile information for previous annual financial statements.

Through April, the county had paid Anderson Peretti $2,952 for Siriani’s work on the 2010 financial statement.

“It’s been expensive; it’s been time consuming; it’s been hard on our workers,” said Partch. “But good things don’t often come without a lot of difficulties.”