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 reduced annual salary-and-benefit costs by $64,269.78.

The commissioner also disputed a narrow comparison involving Susquehanna Advisors. While the treasurer had said the CFO's hiring was intended to cut a $22,000 cost tied to Susquehanna Advisors, the commissioner said the county's own accounting shows broader savings and that the reduction tied specifically to Susquehanna Advisors totaled $124,472.60 over three years.

On geographic-information-system staffing, the commissioner said the county did not replace a GIS director but eliminated the GIS director position; duties moved to the assessment department. That change, the commissioner said, produced an annual wages-and-benefits reduction of $57,101.68. The commissioner also said a deputy director of assessment position was eliminated on Dec. 21, 2023, saving $43,897.99 annually.

The commissioner described changes in the veterans-affairs office since the loss of the previous veterans-affairs director, saying the current team serves about 2,800 veterans and brings about $12 million annually in VA compensation to Jefferson County veterans. The speaker characterized the current team as having cleared a backlog of claims.

On general-fund reconciliation, the commissioner said a $67,954.34 error from October should have been detected earlier if monthly reconciliations had been performed in the treasurer's office; the speaker said the county's new CFO discovered the issue and took action to contain taxpayer cost impact. The commissioner said the treasurer's office did not perform reconciliations in 2023 and that the work had been outsourced to Susquehanna accounting, with budget-preparation costs to the county in 2024 totaling $49,280 (as shown in an invoicing record the commissioner cited).

The commissioner also took aim at a proposal the treasurer raised about hours of operation, saying it was unnecessary and pointing to a Pennsylvania municipal-code citation the speaker located online. The commissioner read the code (as cited during the meeting) to say that the county commissioners"determine when the county courthouse and all county offices located elsewhere shall be open," and urged the treasurer to focus on fiduciary responsibilities rather than raising what the speaker called "distractions."

The commissioner repeatedly told the board that Van Steenberg had been present and voted in favor of many of the salary-board actions that the treasurer later criticized. The commissioner said Van Steenberg declined an offer to work with staff on a comprehensive correction document.

The commissioner closed by asking other county leaders, including the treasurer, to speak on behalf of taxpayers and help address what the speaker described as avoidable waste.