Roberts County Auditor Not "On Top" of Finances... But "Not Doing a Bad Job"

Following up on Roberts County's violations of state law uncovered in a scathing state audit, HJ Pro Voice interviews (in a text document unnecessarily plugging up bandwidth in bulky PDF format) with inattentive auditor Dawn Sattler. The interview is included with HJPV's summary of Tuesday's county commission meeting.

HJPV assures us "THERE IS NO MONEY MISSING" [caps in original]. Sattler ascribes the budget violations to the beleaguered jail construction project. According to HJPV's meeting summary, the jail project was apparently supposed to be a money-maker for the county. Roberts County expected to make $360,000 from housing state and federal prisoners. HJPV reports from the commission meeting that a new facility in Hughes County has taken most of the federal prisoners and that state prisoners have only generated $4500 for the county this year. Oops.

Back to Sattler: she says she didn't do her financials the way she should have. She says she wasn't forceful enough in opposing things she should have. She promises she'll keep a closer eye on the budget... but the fact remains that, in violation of state law, Sattler allowed let the county play shell games with $765,000.

Sattler is running for reëlection. She says she's not doing a bad job. Really.