LFC Comments by Brian Massie, Executive Director
The election season has started in Lake County. Our first article of the season is a Press Release by the Democrat challenger for Lake County Auditor, Mr. Joe Shriver. We will be at the Auditor’s Budget meeting tomorrow at 11:00 am with camera in hand.
All press releases may be sent to LobbyistsforCitizens@gmail.com. All articles dealing with Lake County politics can be found under the heading “Lake County Politics” in the header on the home page.
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Press Release 02/03/2022
For Immediate Release.
Corruption in Lake County Auditor’s Office!
Internal County documents obtained by a Public Records request prove that elected County Auditor Chris Galloway knowingly and willingly violated Ohio Law. These documents show that Auditor Galloway manipulated payroll data to award multiple political appointees within the Auditors department raises. In some cases, the raises were in of excess 50% from the prior year. Auditor Galloway even handed out tens of thousands of dollars in bonuses, and in one particular case handed out a bonus to an employee in December of 2021 who was hired in October of the same year. These unilateral actions caused the Auditor’s department to go over their line-item budget which is against Ohio Law; and created the need for a financial bail-out from the Lake County Commissioners to bring the Auditor’s department out of the red to prevent a negative financial stability rating of the county as a whole.
This is particularly ironic due to the fact the Auditor is elected to guard against other county departments from doing this exact type of illegal accounting.
County Budget Director Mike Matas, who is a non-partisan county employee, penned a letter to Auditor Galloway dated December 13th 2021 stating that his actions were quote “contrary to Law and violates Ohio Revised Code…This would result in a serious violation that can negatively affect the county as a whole.”
Galloway in response to the letter stated that he is “transparent” with his department, but then questioned and hinted at “how odd” it was that a public records request was conducted that brought his actions to light when the public should have not known of his actions (insinuating that someone from or perhaps the Commissioners themselves directed members of the public to make the request). There are also more documents pertaining to this situation that the Auditor will not release claiming attorney client privilege through the Lake County Prosecutors office.
Joseph P. Shriver who has submitted petitions to run against Galloway this November had this to say: “This type of wasteful, illegal spending is exactly what I am looking to eliminate and why I am running to serve as Auditor in Lake County. Whether one identifies as Republican or Democrat, we need to all come together as Americans and rid this type of corruption and incompetence from our government no matter to which Political Party the office holder belongs. Our campaign will be one of unity where we can all unite in the belief that our government should be run fiscally responsible and to the will of the people. Let’s make our County Government financially responsible and corruption free again.”
The County has scheduled a budget hearing with the Auditor’s office this Friday. February 4th at 11:00 AM at the Lake County Administration Building to go over this and other actions taken by the Auditor’s office. The hearing is open to the public.
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LFC Comments: Here are copies of public records received concerning this matter:
This is the Budget Director’s letter expressing concern (see page 2) about the over-expenditure of current appropriations of $1,072.04 with one additional payroll remaining for the remainder of 2021.
Here is Auditor Galloway’s response to the Budget Director, Mike Matas.
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Categories: Lake County Politics