We, Bryan Adolph, Mike Kilby, Larry Lekse and Sue Olson, former commissioners have read Adam Carlson’s articles and take issue with many of the things he has said. He does not seem to have a clear understanding of the role of the employees and the duties and responsibilities of the county commissioners. Mr. Carlson is wrong on almost every point in his opinion article that we must respond and correct the record.

The past commissioners and Amy Angel worked together for many years trying to be fiscally responsible to the taxpayers of Musselshell County. Mr. Carlson states that the past commissioners had not used all of the mills available. Why should we have? Just because we had the ability to raise taxes doesn’t mean we should. The county was able to run on the additional increase in valuation because of Signal Peak Mine. Before the mine opened the mill was worth $6,000. A mill is now worth over $13,000. That is double what it was in 1990 and for many years forward. In order to calculate how many mills, the county is allowed, the county used the Mill Levy Calculation Worksheet provided by the state. Due to the huge increase in the taxable value when Signal Peak reopened, the calculation almost doubled the amount of mills that were allowable. After contacting different agencies, it was decided that the increase in allowable mills was really just a loophole and that it would be irresponsible and unethical of the commissioners to use all the mills.

The increase in taxable value alone allowed the commissioners to raise wages substantially at times and to increase various budgets all without raising taxes. After the current commissioners raised the mills by 47 mills there were still 91 mills that could have been used. Taxpayers beware; those mills can still be used. That would double the taxes in the county.

There was no reason for there to be any blame put on anyone but the current commissioners for the increase in tax revenue. It is the current commissioners’ responsibility to know where they are financially before blasting the taxpayers with such a large tax increase. It should also be noted that one of the current commissioners has been in office for five years and had no reason for not understanding the financial process after so many years. It was only Tom Berry that disagreed with the tax increase.

Grants seem to be a contentious issue with Mr. Carlson. The victim witness grant, FEMA grants, or other types of grants, which there are many, are the responsibility of the person writing the grant. If there were problems with the documentation for the victim advocate grant, then the party responsible for it would have to deal with it. The accounting department would help collect all documentation that they thought was required, but the accounting department for any of the grants, especially as none of the grants were for that office.

It needs to be understood that all grants that Musselshell County gets are reimbursed directly to the treasurer’s office or deposited directly into the county’s bank account. There would be no financial or personal gain to the accounting department for any of the grants, especially as none of the grants were for that office.

Musselshell County has spent thousands of dollars on backup servers to ensure that no county business is ever lost. Servers backup on a nightly basis. This information can be accessed at any time. All financial data is backed up in this system. If one of the computers is damaged or destroyed the information on that computer would have been backed up on the server.

Mr. Carlson stated that tax mills were not being allocated into the correct funds. Why does he think that? The number of mills that were budgeted to go into each fund were allocated into that fund. The commissioners have the authority to decide how many of the general fund mills are directed to the various departments. The road fund is the exception to this rule as it is taxed differently. The City of Roundup and the Town of Melstone do not pay into the road fund. The road fund was usually milled up the legally allowed levy.

There have always been checks and balances for the accounting office. Claims were always reviewed and signed by two commissioners before checks were printed. The only signature on the checks are a commissioner and the clerk and recorder, not the accounting office. Detailed cash reports have always been given to the commissioners and department heads. The accounting office has never been a signer on checks, invested money or transferred funds between any or out of any financial institution. The accounting office looked at each claim and initialed it. Any duplicate claims should have been caught by the commissioners.

The audits by statute are the responsibility of the Clerk and Recorder. Because the county had an accounting office, they would remind the commissioners if an audit were due. It is the responsibility of the county commissioners to see that the audit gets done, NOT the accounting department. The commissioners following us failed in their duty to see that the 2015 audit and subsequent audits were completed. There should be no blame of the accounting office because the audit for 2015 didn’t get done and no excuses should be accepted.

There was no gross fraud in the 2015 audit. The audit did not identify any actual fraudulent activity. It is the job of the auditors to identify areas where there could be strengthened internal control. Even our ambulance department, which we believe is very well run and a hard-working department was mentioned many times. The auditors pointed out that the director could authorize invoices, record receipts, reconcile accounts receivable and record account adjustments/write-offs which violates segregation of duties. They were only showing an area of potential risk, certainly not saying there was any sort of fraud.

This is just an illustration of an area that the auditors cited in their findings as a possible risk or item that needed fixed. Just because something is listed, does not mean there was any sort of fraud.

There have been no residuals received by Mr. Berry from Key Insurance since 2013. He could not have benefited from the worker’s compensation fund or any of the other insurance the county carries with Key Insurance. How could Mr. Carlson suggest that Mr. Berry would have received financial compensation from the workers compensation fund when he has absolutely no knowledge about Key Insurance business? We are fortunate to have Key Insurance to carry the insurance for the county.

Musselshell County has many very good and dedicated employees that the county relies. Among these employees were Shirley Marking and Amy Angel. We could depend on their honesty and integrity. They served us well when we were commissioners and we appreciated everything they did. Shirley always had claims ready when the commissioners were ready to sign them, even if some had come in late. She was a joy to have around. Amy always tried to keep us out of financial trouble when we thought we could do something. She would tell us when we didn’t have the budget authority. She helped us determine how much of a raise we could give we could give to employees without putting too much of a burden on taxpayers. Our budgets always came in in good shape at the end of the years because Amy knew the secret. She estimated the revenue a tiny bit lower and the expenses a tiny bit higher and we followed it and it worked.

Bryan Adolph, Mike Kilby, Larry Lekse and Sue Olson