County financial access a hot point

COEUR d'ALENE — Dollars and sense about Kootenai County's financial system became a hotly debated topic in the race for clerk during a meeting of Republicans on Friday.

Dena Darrow, the county's finance director, spoke to the North Idaho Pachyderm Club at IHOP about "Setting the Record Straight."

Internal financial access to the county's system and transparency are hot-button issues that have rippled into the clerk's race in the Nov. 6 general election between GOP incumbent Jim Brannon and unaffiliated challenger Dan Gookin.

While Darrow said her talk wasn't intended to be political but instead fact-based, it exposed an internal struggle at the county that's been raised in campaigns for county clerk.

"I'm not here to talk politics," she told the group of about 40. "There is a lot of misinformation flying about and I want to give it some context."

Darrow leads the county's auditing team, which works in the Clerk's Office.

At the heart of the internal financial struggle is which employees should be allowed access to the county's financial data — and how much.

System security versus giving certain employees access to better perform their jobs is a debate commissioners and staff will be untangling in the months ahead even beyond the election, Commissioner Chris Fillios said after the talk.

The fight has also been evident in meetings. Commissioner Bob Bingham, who likes to dive deep into data, has become frustrated over what he believes is a limited amount of information released by the Clerk's Office for him to make informed decisions.

That led to Bingham and Fillios supporting creation of a new senior business analyst position this year. It was a move opposed by some in the Clerk's Office because they believed it infringed on their duties.

Gookin, who was at the meeting along with Brannon, said afterward that commissioners should be granted their authority to set the countywide policy on what should be done with the financial matter, but face a "stumbling block" from the Clerk's Office to get there.

"Bottom line, (the commissioners) are fiscally responsible for the entire organization," Gookin said. "My goal is to build bridges in the county. This has been a major issue for county employees that the public needs to know. It's been inside baseball."

Gookin said there have been multiple supervisors who would like access to data in "read-only" mode to see if there's money to cover their department's day-to-day needs. However they must present those requests in meetings instead, creating a cumbersome process.

"It should just take a phone call, email or direct access to the budget itself," Gookin said. "People are not able to do their jobs."

However, Brannon said it's his statutory obligation to protect the security of the financial system.

"When I put my left hand on the Bible and raise my right to uphold (the Constitution), it's to maintain the integrity of our financial system," he said after the meeting. "The clerk is the chief budget officer of the county. Transparency is not the problem. Perception is the problem. I'm not going to open our books to everyone. It makes no sense."

Fillios said commissioners “own” all of the assets of the county, including the financial software, but Darrow said the Clerk's Office manages the system.

The issue even became pointed in interviews with The Press after the meeting.

"It's a tough call; work it out," Darrow suggested to Fillios.

Fillios responded, "We've been trying."

Darrow said there's a fine balance between allowing employees to do their jobs by granting access, and running the risk of jeopardizing sensitive data.

The more people allowed to access data, the greater chance there is for something to go haywire even if it's unintended, she said.

"When you put controls in the financial system, you give people exactly what they need to do their job and nothing more," she said.

Fillios has said he understands maintaining the integrity of the system is paramount, but increased access to data for some employees would also help commissioners make better-informed budget decisions.

Darrow said once an employee no longer works at the county, that worker is prohibited from access to the data if they were previously allowed to have it. Access can also be cut if employees change jobs within the county.

Darrow said the finance staff is trying to adhere to a recommendation by the county's exterior auditor on tight controls to maintain the integrity of the system.

Attendee Deborah Rose raised the decision of commissioners to chop the county's internal auditing function during the budget process.

"Without that, how are we ensured there will be no embezzlement?" Rose asked.

Darrow responded: "We'll do the best we can, but we don't have funding for the internal audit function."

Rose said she doesn't believe the county has been transparent enough about the budget, but Darrow countered that it publishes an annual audited financial report, quarterly updates with commentary, and weekly payables. It also responds to a pile of public information requests, including more than 1,000 from one resident alone to the Clerk's Office since the end of 2013.

Darrow said the county publishes highlights that it believes most citizens would be interested in.

"If you want more details, just ask," she said.

With more than 800 employees at the county, she said the agency's financial system can be a gold mine for identity theft, Darrow said.

"We want to be transparent and make sure we're sharing information the public is paying for, but we also need to make sure the system doesn't get hacked," she said, adding that the county could be sued by employees if there is identity theft.

"We have victims, court records, the public defender and prosecuting attorney so they can't see each other's information … so that's why we do what we do."