Commissioner disputes treasurer's salary-board report, details staffing cuts and reconciliations

A Jefferson County commissioner on April 1 challenged details in a treasurer's report presented at a March 25 salary-board meeting, laying out what the commissioner described as corrections on staffing levels, cost savings and reconciliations.

The commissioner said Treasurer Van Steenberg had told the salary board that "nothing goes through this board. You just throw numbers out there and pay everyone," and disputed several of Van Steenberg's factual claims from the March 25 meeting. The commissioner said the county's finance department had four positions before the new chief financial officer's engagement, and that after reorganization the department fell to three positions, producing salary-and-benefit savings the commissioner summarized as "hundreds of thousands of dollars." The commissioner added that the director of finance position was eliminated on Dec. 21, 2023, and that elimination…