Lake County Holding on to Citizens’ Unclaimed Funds

Unclaimed Funds

Written by: Brian Massie, LFC President
June 26, 2021

We have continued to research the details about the $350 million that our Lake County government has invested. We found two accounts totaling over $6 million dollars that belong to the taxpayers, but are still in the hands of the Lake County Treasurer’s office.

Here is a video with LFC discussing the unclaimed monies with the Lake County Commissioners on 6/24/21:

Section 9.39 | Liability for public money received or collected – unclaimed money

Effective July 1, 1985

“All public officials are liable for all public money received or collected by them or by their subordinates under color of office. All money received or collected by a public official under color of office and not otherwise paid out according to law shall be paid into the treasury of the public office with which he is connected to the credit of a trust fund and shall be retained there until claimed by its lawful owner. If not claimed within a period of five years, the money shall revert to the general fund of the public office.”

Color of office refers to a person acting as if in an official capacity as an employee of a governmental unit, but taking action which isn’t authorized. It is an act by an public official done without authority under the pretense that he or she has an official right to do the act by reason of the officer’s position.”

Fund number 803 titled “Unclaimed monies” as of 4/30/21 = $735,359.71

Fund number 894 titled “Surplus Over” as of 4/30/21 = $5,324,376.05
Per the County’s Finance Director: This fund is the accumulation of overages of tax payments through the Treasurer’s Office on various parcels of real estate for various reasons.

Total of both funds $6,059,735.76

As far as LFC is concerned, posting a list of unclaimed funds in the newspaper expecting people to see their name, although it may meet the letter of the law, is not adequate notification or effort by our local government.

We will file the following public records request on Tuesday, June 29th at the Lake County Commissioners Meeting.

We will keep our readers informed when we hear from the Treasurer’s office on how they plan to give the money back to the taxpayers.

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Categories: Lake, Local News, Ohio Counties, Uncategorized

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