Coker asserts authority over county finances

Whitman County Auditor Eunice Coker blames county commissioners for allowing the county’s finance department to devolve to the point it had to be dismantled.

“Finance got like that because they have been under the county commissioners,” she told commissioners Pat O’Neill and Greg Partch during a workshop session Monday.

Commissioners put too many conflicting tasks on the department, she said, without providing the resources needed to get the job done.

Because of that, Coker told O’Neill and Partch she was taking over the finance department and putting it under her leadership.

Commissioner Michael Largent was away on vacation.

“The auditor is taking the finance department and its duties back under the auditor’s office,” Coker told commissioners. “What’s been going on for at least the last five years isn’t working.”

Under the commissioners’ leadership, she said, communication between county leaders and the finance department has deteriorated.

“I don’t think we have a problem with it at all, Eunice,” said Partch.

Partch agreed with Coker that commissioners should “share” the blame for the malfunctions in the finance department, but said blame is counter-productive to solving the current problems.

“You can always look back and see how things could have gone,” he said. “If somebody hadn’t crashed into the World Trade Towers, where would we be today?”

Partch took over as interim director of the finance department after it was gutted earlier this month.

The firing of Divine June 1 and the resignation of Assistant Director Sharron Cunningham two days later provided the opportunity to move the department to the auditor’s office, said Coker.

Prosecutor Denis Tracy issued a legal opinion June 16 that stated commissioners can only oversee functions of the finance department with the auditor’s consent.Tracy said he found no documented proof that consent had ever been given commissioners.

Former Auditor Jim Repp told the Gazette last week that’s because it never was.

He said commissioners in the mid-1980s simply took control of the finance department.

David Repp, who was auditor earlier this decade, tried to withdraw the consent that had been implied since the mid-1980s. He was given no budget to perform those duties, and returned them back to county commissioners.

Monday, Coker essentially withdrew the implied consent that has had commissioners in charge of the county’s finances for decades.

Only one full time employee remains. That employee is Esther Wilson, who is running against Coker for auditor this fall. Wilson has also applied for the newly created systems administrator job in the information technology department. Another employee, Debbie Kilpatrick, has been floating between finance and the treasurer’s offices.

“My whole point in calling this meeting was to let you know this is what we’re doing,” said Coker. “We have four 24/7 positions that are just sitting idly empty.”

County commissioners, though, were hesitant to give Coker the department and its budget.

“We’ll meet the letter of the law, the RCW’s,” said Partch. As for just handing it over to Coker, Partch told her “that isn’t going to happen.”

Commissioners do not have to give the auditor the budget for employees to perform those functions. Coker asked for that Monday.

O’Neill said he wanted to re-evaluate the need for four employees. Finance employees were not being used to their potential under former Director Bev Divine, he said, and the number could be reduced.

“It was a bad situation. That’s all I’m saying,” he said.

O’Neill added he held Tracy’s opinion to be final.

“I thought it was very clear that finance has to go under the county auditor,” said O’Neill.

Partch initially balked at Coker’s request.

“We need a person that’s accountable directly to the county commissioners,” he said.

He said commissioners are responsible for the county’s budget, and he worried they would not have direct contact with a finance department under the auditor’s control.

Tracy’s opinion said state law puts the ultimate responsibility to prepare the first draft of the county’s annual budget and end-of-year financial statements on the auditor.

Partch had planned to contract out preparation of financial statements to the Spokane accounting firm of Anderson Peretti.

Divine had contracted the firm to assist her in the statement preparation. Partch said he later found the firm had been essentially completing the entire report.

As cited in Tracy’s opinion, however, commissioners cannot contract out the auditor’s statutory duties without the auditor’s consent.

Tracy said Monday past contracts with Anderson Peretti would be valid because Coker never objected to them.

Partch asked her to meet with the firm to hear their proposal and sign off on a contract to hire them.

“This is a big account to them. They’ll be very flexible,” he said.

Partch then offered to meet with Coker to discuss the situation. Coker said she would not meet with Partch in a one-on-one basis.

She later told the Gazette information from previous one-on-one meetings with Partch has been distorted or omitted from later policy discussions.

Also Monday, Coker informed commissioners she would be hiring a temporary employee to fill upcoming staff changes in her office.

Long-time payroll clerk Christina Thompson is retiring at the end of the year. Coker plans to transfer a recording deputy to her position and move a licensing clerk to the records department. The temp would fill the vacancy in licensing.

Coker said the move would add $7,800 in payroll expenses to her office.

Partch asked her to wait to make the move because he wanted to discuss the matter when Largent returns.

He mentioned contracting out the licensing duties to a sub-agent in Colfax, similar to those in Pullman and Rosalia.

Coker said she has looked into the idea, but did not deem it a viable option as costs would increase without significantly reducing her labor force.

Partch said Coker’s licensing department has been the top source of complaints he has heard from citizens.