Letters

Auditor comments

I need to comment on certain portions of an article in the 10/23/2014 Gazette titled “County makes cuts to balance 2015 budget.”

The article states that the county commissioners spent close to two hours discussing my budget. It also states that I had not discussed the proposed staff addition with them; that there is an agency “evaluating the auditor’s department”; and that junior taxing district budgets will be incorporated into the county’s budget.

Many times over the past two years I have discussed the need for additional staff in the finance department with the commissioners. The most recent being during my scheduled budget review session with them at 9 a.m. Sept. 9. I had no idea that they would be discussing it further in their regularly scheduled meetings on Monday Oct. 20. Had they let me know, I would have been there. I had already cut my budget back by $5,000 at their request, and knew nothing of the additional $48,000 cut until Commissioner Largent told me about it in a private conversation on the 21st.

There is no agency that will be “evaluating the auditor’s office”.

Rather, the commissioners, with my support and cooperation, have contracted with the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) to come and conduct an overhead view of accounting processes throughout the county departments.

One of the goals we hope to accomplish is a more centralized model of receipting, accounts payable, and payroll processing to achieve greater efficiencies countywide.

In early spring 2015 the State Auditor’s Performance Center will be working with us at the base level to identify specific areas where processes can be streamlined to implement countywide internal controls, clean up the bank reconciliations, and to cut down on redundancy.

Since January of 2014 my office has been able to access the inner workings of our current financial software program for the first time since it was implemented in 2011. The Whitman County Auditor’s Office staff has made huge inroads into clearing up the issues which caused the county’s 2012 state audit to fail, and the 2013 audit that is currently underway to result in findings and management letters. The 2014 audit to be conducted in 2015 will show the results of the dedication and expertise of my current staff, in spite of the department not being funded properly by the Board of Commissioners at this time.

Lastly, the Whitman County Junior Taxing Districts are entities unto themselves. They set and manage their own budgets outside of the county’s purview. They are required to send a copy of their budgets to the County Assessor, but that has to do with checking that their levies are sufficient, not for budget tracking and management.

Eunice L. Coker,

Whitman County Auditor

& Ex-Officio Supervisor of Elections,

Colfax

Opposes 594

I am encouraging everyone to vote no on I-594. My family is made up of hunters. If this law passes, it will make it a felony for them to loan their guns to each other. The law, if passed, would require them to go to a gun shop, fill out a transfer, and, then they could proceed with their hunting. Really?

This law is so insane! All it will do is hinder the law-abiding citizens. It will not keep guns out of the hands of criminals. Why do you think they are criminals? If a person wants a gun, they will get it regardless of laws.

This law is a chance for the government to take more rights from citizens and leave them vulnerable to a government take-over. Please wake up! This is not what our forefathers intended. We are to be able to defend our land, home and family from the tyranny of the government. Too many people think it’s OK for the government to tell them, or others, how to live. Bit by bit, the government will chip away at our “rights” until they have total control. That is called “communist.” I for one, know the government doesn’t know what is best for me and my family. Voting no on I-594 is a way to tell them to stay out of our lives!

Janet Luft,

Endicott