Kathy Tremont is running for election to the Second District seat on the Geary County Commission. She is challenging incumbent Alex Tyson for the seat.
Tremont wrote: To the Citizens of Geary County:
It is important to respond to and clarify some of the accusatory remarks made by my opponent regarding my handling of funds as the former County Treasurer. County financial responsibilities are set up within state statutes to provide checks and balances for county taxpayer dollars. As County Treasurer, I was in charge of tax collection, deposits, and distributions in addition to the Motor Vehicle Department. I was an agent for the State of Kansas. It would be helpful for others (including some current commissioners), to understand the duties of the Treasurer’s Office and the County Clerk’s Office, which are different in function. Voters deserve better than this current climate of nasty politics from those who should know better. Instead, I have to work to correct statements that Commissioners Giordano and Tyson made that are inaccurate, misleading, and unprofessional.
Mr. Tyson claims I “operated the budget with 24 outside accounts, with 18 of them not on any financial reports.” Statutorily, and MOST importantly, the Treasurer is not responsible for operating the County budget; I was responsible for my (Treasurer’s) budget and had no difficulties with it. These “outside accounts” had been audited through 2016 with no issues; a different firm audited from 2017 through 2020, and then yet another, in 2021. There was a period, 2017 through 2020, that they were not picked up for audit. I don’t know why they weren’t; auditors choose what they want to audit, and it is not the responsibility of the County Treasurer to tell them what to audit. An audit is a tool to communicate findings to the governing body and make recommendations that improve the county’s operation. It is their opinion, and 30 other auditors may not find the same thing or look at the same particular items. This is not to say the accounts don’t need to be accounted for; department heads were responsible for providing the information anytime they opened an account, as I was responsible for pledging the securities to protect our funds in the bank.
Commissioner Giordano references a paragraph from a management letter, presumably regarding the 2020 audit, which states: “The County Treasurer’s office does properly reconcile total cash daily, and then again monthly, with respect to the amount of cash in the funds compared to the total amounts in the bank accounts.” However, the County’s accounting system balances for individual banking deposit assets are not reconciled to the specific general ledger accounts intended to track each balance.” Please note that it says, “The County Treasurer’s office does properly reconcile....” The rest refers to the County’s accounting system, which is the office's responsibility for the operating budget, not the Treasurer’s Office. I do not profess to be perfect, but I am confident in my competence as the former Treasurer.
In closing, I will leave the voters to consider: Commissioners Tyson and Giordano stress the savings the finance director has made for Geary County. This position is currently the 3rd highest paid county employee at $131,000 a year---$1.3M over a ten year period, plus a $354,000 office budget. (This position/budget was created in 2022.) I do not know how we can continually sustain the budget increases. I apparently have missed the savings on my tax bill.
You have trusted me for over 40 years, and I hope you can trust me as we move forward. I decided to run for commissioner to represent the folks of Geary County, I did not sign up to be publicly humiliated. You can expect these things at the national level but not locally in a smaller community. How do we recover from broken friendships and distrust in these elections
I would appreciate the opportunity to serve as your County Commissioner; I will always do my best for Geary County. We need to GROW TOGETHER, NOT APART.
The election is Tuesday.