The County Treasurer urged Warren County’s Finance and Budget Committee to schedule formal discussion at the next Finance and Personnel committee meetings and at the full Board of Supervisors after the appointed county administrator told the treasurer during an Aug. 27 budget review that the treasurer’s team would be excluded from the county budget team.

The request, made during the committee’s public-comment period, asked that the county’s “existing and proposed changes to the budget team member makeup” and the “financial rigor and subjective nature of the personnel request process” be reviewed to ensure “objectivity, effectiveness, and independence” and to guard against conflicts of interest, the treasurer said.

Why it matters: The treasurer said the county’s treasurer and the treasurer’s staff have participated in the county budget team “since the inception of this budget team makeup since 1976,” and that the deputy treasurer — a CPA — has provided “critical value add and independently objective objectivity to the process.” The treasurer said the administrator’s decision not to include the treasurer’s team is “not up for debate,” and characterized that as unacceptable.

Committee context: The treasurer asked that the matter be placed on next month’s personnel and finance committee agendas and on the next full-board meeting so the supervisor body can review the change and the decision-making process. No formal action or vote on this request occurred at the committee meeting; the treasurer said staff would provide more documentation at the requested future meeting.

The treasurer’s request came during public comment; no County Administrator response was recorded in the committee transcript. The committee proceeded to its scheduled action agenda items after the public comment period ended.