BOCC approves letter on fair board audit status

SANDPOINT — Bonner County commissioners voted last week to approve drafting a letter to external auditor Hayden Ross regarding the status of an audit of the Bonner County Fair Board.

In recent months, the county has heard multiple statements from various departments claiming that either the commissioners were responsible for the yearly audit of the fair board, or, on the flip side, that the fair board was responsible for auditing itself.

Regardless, the fair board has not had an audit for over 10 years — an issue that the county is now working to solve as quickly as possible, especially after alleged fraud at the fair in 2022.

During the process of deciphering who was responsible for the audit, the fair board issued a press release accusing the commissioners, county clerk and comptroller of negligence and illegally directing Hayden Ross to not audit the fair board. These comments, Commissioner Luke Omodt said, were uncalled for and need to be rescinded.

“I have asked the fair board to retract the statements which I believe are grossly inaccurate, which is supported by fact,” he said.

Omodt said county commissioners have the responsibility of hiring an independent auditing firm that meets a certain set of legal requirements to audit the fair board.

“You can not just go out and start cold calling auditors to hire them,” he said, referring to Commissioner Asia Williams calling auditing firms to inquire who would be willing to work with the county. “That is not how it works. There are specific federal guidelines that must be met in order for us to be in compliance with the law.”

The chairman said he cannot go out and decide to hire his cousin for the audit because he likes his cousin; whoever is hired must meet multiple requirements and have no conflicts of interest within the county. Hayden Ross, Omodt said, has been in business in Idaho for 85 years and has worked well with the county.

However, Omodt said the county is looking ahead, rather than looking back. Many county residents have requested that the commissioners conduct audits on the fair board covering a 10-year time period to determine what, if any, fraud was committed at the fairgrounds. However, that is something the commissioners said they don’t feel is financially feasible at this time, especially since the fair board has claimed it doesn’t have past financial records.

An individual audit for the fair board costs roughly $20,000. To audit the past 10 years, if the records do exist, would cost the county an estimated $200,000. That is an amount of money the county cannot spend on records that may not even be found, Omodt said.

“No board can bind a future board’s actions,” he said. “So a future board could choose to attempt to pursue these audits. However, the fair board has made it clear that the records do not exist at this time for an audit to be conducted.”

Omodt stepped down from the chair and moved for the board to approved a draft letter to Hayden Ross reflecting that: The fiscal year 2022 and previous audited financial statements did not include operations of the fairgrounds; Bonner County is not pursuing a reissuance of previous years’ audited financial statements to include operations of the fairgrounds, the fiscal year 2023 audited financial statement will include operations of the fairgrounds as a component unit of the county; and an audit of the fairgrounds will be conducted by a separate independent auditor.

Commissioner Steve Bradshaw seconded the motion and gave his thoughts on the issue at hand.

“Even though [the fair board] operates under the county, we have no authority over that,” he said.

The only financial authority the commissioners have over the fair board, he said, is the money that goes from the taxpayers to pay the salaries of the county employees who work for the fairgrounds. Bradshaw said legally, the commissioners don’t even have the authority to demand that the fair board audit themselves, if that had been that entity’s responsibility.

“We can only go so far,” he said. “After that, it’s a law violation thing. We’re not allowed to prosecute anybody, we’re not allowed to arrest anybody or interfere with anybody’s operations. That would fall under the prosecutor’s office.”

Omodt’s motion passed, with he and Bradshaw voting yes. Williams was absent from the meeting and did not vote.