Comments on: AG Investigates $31K Discrepancy At Ada Office

By: John

John — Fri, 12 Feb 2016 15:00:54 +0000

Right on erico. Alternative county government is possible! Both the treasurer and the coroner should be eliminated or at least should have minimum education requirements. A MBA at minimum for treasurer and a MD or DO for coroner. How does it make sense to have a layperson making decisions about complicated financial or medical decsions? It’s dangerous to the community.

By: erico49

erico49 — Wed, 02 Dec 2015 14:48:51 +0000

Nine full-time elected officials to run the county, including 3 to handle the leftovers that the other 6 don’t supervise (landfill, entertainment, P&Z). And still they can’t get it right? Time to reorganize county government.

By: Vicky Mcintyre

Vicky Mcintyre — Wed, 02 Dec 2015 03:17:49 +0000

To R Dean
Staff turnover includes people retiring and new employees deciding it’s too much work with too few people. None of you know all this office does for the county and taxpayers. No one, including the commissioners, darken my door to learn firsthand what we do and how efficient we are in doing it all.
I have an education, more than most other county treasurers, and extensive experience. You are welcome to come see us in action some day while we process the millions of tax dollars being collected. In the last 4 business days we’ve handled 20 million and fielded 1,000 phone calls from taxpayers. Where else in county government is this much work done daily?

By: Steve Rinehart

Steve Rinehart — Tue, 01 Dec 2015 23:56:36 +0000

Perhaps, instead of electing someone to work as a professional administrator, we should hire someone who actually has a solid resume and the required education and experience. I mean, other than political party experience.

By: R. Dean

R. Dean — Tue, 01 Dec 2015 20:06:07 +0000

Anytime an organization turns over half its employees you have a problem with leadership (reference the ADA County Commissioners letter to McIntyre earlier in November).

At the same time, she pursues baseless criminal charges against the Commissioners.

In my opinion, she is a narcissist without leadership skills who needs to be defeated in the next election, if not fired for incompetency.

By: Dave Frazier

Dave Frazier — Mon, 30 Nov 2015 17:31:38 +0000

We are getting professional links which we will share. Here is one from another CPA. From NY State, but “Inadequate monitoring leads to weaknesses in internal controls, which in turn provide an opportune environment for fraud, abuse, and waste, and may result in loss or inefficient use of municipal resources and added costs to taxpayers.”

https://www.questia.com/magazine/1P3-2417327551/internal-control-weaknesses-in-local-government

By: Grumpy ole Guy

Grumpy ole Guy — Mon, 30 Nov 2015 10:08:08 +0000

Please tell me that I am not the only one who at least faintly amused by the Coroner’s office “securing” guns and ammo. I am reminded of the Dodge City, Kansas Tombstone cemetery inscription “Dead-Eye Dick, now dead all over.

And where,pray tell are the Victoria’s Secrete items secured?

By: Easterner

Easterner — Mon, 30 Nov 2015 06:55:27 +0000

Who said, “The buck stops here”?

The Legislative Services Office puts out an annual report about this kind of stuff for the state- most notably last year they found the State Treasurer did a little inappropriate bookkeeping.
(Only as a citation/and some boring reading:)
http://legislature.idaho.gov/audit/2014icr.pdf

Auditors point out the problems and then the politicians/managers say, “Okay we’ll do better next year”. Only the person actually caught stealing (Brent Coles) gets in trouble. The “managers” who are tasked to protect the coffers get another election.
Just exactly like McIntyre says in her letter:
“We will evaluate the suggested changes from all audits, with the available resources, and implement those that are feasible.”

So regardless of the what the professional auditors said, she will ‘evaluate’ their recommendations based on “her superior understanding” of internal controls (evidence provided in the report) – and only those that “are feasible” will be taken seriously.
So, trying to protect $31,000 of taxpayer’s money might not be feasible, but photographing lingerie and posting it on an obscure site for sale is feasible?

She is effectively repeating what Ron Crane said– by publicly stating his office (he) was not wrong:
“Treasurer Crane: Audit was unfounded and shows a general misunderstanding”
http://www.ktvb.com/story/news/local/2014/07/02/12083763/
Crane must have sent his playbook over to McIntyre.

She says it’s not like taking a college class “to know what to do”.
Maybe she didn’t get the memo about “Treasurer 101” sponsored by the Idaho Association of Cities. City/County- pretty similar.
No doubt the Association of Counties has ample resources for a new employee to get up to speed on the unique job of handling dead people’s junk. 😉
What are the other 43 counties doing? Selling bras online?

Treasurer 101: http://c.ymcdn.com/sites/idahocities.org/resource/resmgr/Mountain_West_Institute/Treasurer_101_-_Faulkner-Rac.pdf?hhSearchTerms=%22%22bank+reconciliations%22%22

By: Easterner

Easterner — Mon, 30 Nov 2015 05:35:13 +0000

Public Administrator?
From the website of Idaho Association of Counties:
“Duties as Public Administrator
The county treasurer administers estates for any individual within the county who dies intestate (without a will or heirs). This includes physically cleaning out their home, storing those items, recording and cataloging funds and personal effects.
This task requires working closely with the Prosecuting Attorney’s office. It requires searching for heirs and funds, then monitoring for all possible expenses and eventually closing the estate after public advertisement. This task takes a minimum of 1 year for each case.”

—- so you know when your attorney says “get a will or the state will settle your estate for you”?
This is the person they are talking about. Yikes!
Of course in a different county would be someone else.

In Ada County, Treasurer McIntyre will sell your bras online along with your other ‘personal’ belongings– that’s a warning for some of you weirdo readers – the inventory of stuff is public record.

So for all readers, let’s help out the county and be sure you have a will and designate a person to settle your estate. Ask your friends and family to do the same.

By: Not Fooled

Not Fooled — Sun, 29 Nov 2015 22:20:08 +0000

Which address do I send my check to this year? Can I delay a while until the smoke clears and I can be sure it will be accredited to my parcel? Just exactly why did my taxes go up anyway? Inflation adjusted wages went down, unless you have a government job. And the school bus is always late in spite of the new bond AND the fat lady singing in front of the school. Real question. Why did my taxes go up?