A long-festering controversy over county financial operations erupted Jan. 2 when the Plumas County Board of Supervisors addressed multiple concerns raised by Treasurer/Tax Collector Julie White.
At issue was a resolution to delegate authority to White to invest county funds and the funds of other entities — including Feather River College and the Feather River Tourism Association — for the 2023 calendar year. That has historically been a routine action, said board of supervisors Chairman Greg Hagwood. It is supposed to be approved by resolution every year but this has not been done for two years, he said.
Additionally, White requested reimbursement for expenses she has spent on legal counsel to defend herself against the county in complaints relating to an email from the human resources department and the handling of investment funds. Both items were continued to allow further discussion with the county counsel’s office and Christopher J. Bakes, White’s Sacramento-based attorney who attended the Jan. 2 meeting.
The rancorous two-hour discussion focused less on resolving those issues than challenging White’s performance as treasurer. She has held the office since 2011, running for election unopposed four times. Her office is one of three county departments that collect, invest, allocate and supervise Plumas County’s $166 million annual budget. The offices of the treasurer, auditor and county administrative officer must work together for the success of the entire county, said CAO Debra Lucero.
“And it’s not working well. It’s not working well because we need all three pieces of this trifecta for financials in a county to work,” she said.
County finances in disarray
There is little dispute that Plumas County has been in a state of fiscal disarray. Its credit rating is a triple B minus, Lucero said. For years the supervisors approved annual budgets based on figures from the previous year. The 2023-24 budget, approved Oct. 2, 2023, was the first in six years to use figures rigorously researched by contacting every county department. The county remains a year behind in its audits. If the 2023 audit is not completed by March 31, 2024, the county will be two years behind in audits, Lucero said.
Part of the problem, she said, is coordinating the three departments that deal most directly with finances. Lucero has repeatedly cited difficulties in synchronizing their efforts. The treasurer and auditor are working with outdated systems that are not compatible. Over the last five-plus years Plumas County has spent more than $1 million on new software to replace often decades-old systems and on transitioning from one payroll system to another.
“We’re all in this together,” Lucero said, “and there’s nobody coming. … The cavalry is not coming. It’s us. We’ve got to make it work.”
Complaints over investment practices
The treasurer’s office is responsible for the cash management, investment and safekeeping of all funds in the county treasury. It invests county funds and the funds of other agencies through a county investment pool. White’s system of reporting and returning interest to various entities has come under scrutiny after generating numerous complaints from within and beyond county offices.
The Feather River Tourism Association has complained that the treasurer’s office has delayed its interest payments. In April 2023, Susan Bryner, the association’s treasurer, told the board of supervisors that it had not been paid on time over its three-year existence. She asked for a loan from the county, citing $30,000-plus in overdue payments from the county. In a Jan. 3 letter to the board of supervisors, Karen Kleven, who serves on the association board, credited Lucero with finding the missing payments and getting them dispersed, eliminating a need for a loan.
Kleven and Bryner both said the tax collector’s office had been an “impediment” to creating the organization in 2020. Bryner also cited the “outdated software in the treasurer’s office” that made it impossible for the newly formed organization to collect the data by county region needed to form the tourism association.
“We just want it fixed.”
Kevin Trutna, Feather River College president
Feather River College has also reported problems collecting interest on funds invested in the county investment pool, which White manages. It was missing such a significant amount of interest payments it could not close its books for 2023, said Kevin Trutna, president of the college, which is based in Quincy. As a result, the college’s annual audit resulted in a finding — a statement by the auditor indicating deviations from standard accounting practice, he said.
Resolving the issue is “beyond our control,” Trutna told the supervisors Jan. 2. “We just want it fixed,” he said. “Our board is not happy.”
White said the amount of interest Trutna mentioned is “grossly overreported.”
Hagwood said the issues reported by the tourism association and Feather River College over their investments “are not singular. … Shortcomings, errors or delays in very important reporting are forcing some agencies to take their money and leave,” he said. The Quincy Volunteer Fire Department has already left the investment pool, White said.
Calling White on accountability
At recent meetings of the board of supervisors, White has frequently admitted to making mistakes in accounting for funds, and to being behind in reporting them. She has repeatedly asked for software to improve her processes of posting and tracking investments. “Just get me the software and I will use it,” she told the supervisors Jan. 2.
The board’s efforts to resolve the inadequacies Hagwood cited have themselves exacerbated the conflict between White and county officials. The board has responded to Lucero’s repeated attempts to improve the operations of the treasurer’s office by requesting White to attend meetings to discuss potential changes. White has repeatedly objected, citing the authority of her elected office and her preference to agendize items “when we are ready.”
At the Oct. 17, 2023, board meeting, a visibly angry White noted pointedly that she did not put the item on the board’s agenda. She nevertheless provided a handout outlining her investment policy and guidelines. Hagwood complimented her on “a great report,” noting that it “sheds light on the need for more technology and support from all offices.”
A month later, on Nov. 21, Lucero made four recommendations specific to the treasurer/tax collector’s office, including utilizing investment software to expedite the investment reporting process. “Traditional ‘hand’ processes done by 10-key and Excel spreadsheets are not keeping up with the complicated compliance reporting required by the state,” Lucero said in her recommendation memo to the supervisors.
White once again objected to being placed on the supervisors’ agenda without her involvement. It is her prerogative as an elected official, she said, to place items on the board’s agenda related to her office. “It’s better for us to agendize our own items when we are ready,” White told the supervisors.
“All you’re doing is fueling a fire that shouldn’t be burning.”
Jeff Engel, Plumas County supervisor
This conflict culminated at the board’s Jan. 2 meeting. Controversy over the treasurer’s role began just after Hagwood opened the meeting. Supervisor Jeff Engel asked to remove three items under the treasurer’s time from the agenda, citing ongoing litigation. He called the agenda items “inappropriate.”
Sara James, who was serving as interim county counsel at the time, said no actual litigation has been filed despite some exposure and threats. Hagwood noted that the treasurer has raised “issues that need to be resolved.” He argued that matters concerning an elected official must be discussed publicly unless they involve actual litigation. “Because we are dealing with an elected official, we cannot take this into a closed session without violating the Brown Act,” Hagwood said.
Engel continued to oppose including the treasurer items on the agenda. “All you’re doing is fueling a fire that shouldn’t be burning,” Engel said. His motion to remove the treasurer’s agenda items died for lack of a second.
Actions away from public view
Despite Hagwood’s insistence that issues involving the treasurer be discussed openly and publicly, and the board’s various efforts to publicly hold White accountable, several county officials have acted away from public view. In a Sept. 6, 2023, email obtained by The Plumas Sun, Plumas County Human Resources Director Nancy Selvage wrote to White about a possible “dereliction of duty.” She asked White to provide information about her “functional limitations, if any,” that might “limit your fitness to perform your duties as the Treasurer/Tax Collector.” The email, copied to Hagwood, listed 11 examples of how White has been “unable to meet your responsibilities of the Treasurer/Tax Collector.”
Selvage, who is on administrative leave pending resolution of criminal charges filed against her, was not available to comment.
Bakes, who is representing White, told the supervisors Jan. 2 that he was “shocked and surprised that the situation had been permitted to get so out of control.” He cited numerous Brown Act violations uncovered in documents and correspondence with county officials.
Several public records requests submitted by Bakes produced information about a second action, this one taken by Lucero. Bakes said Lucero contacted the Feather River Tourism Association over its complaints about the treasurer’s office. “I now have direct evidence that Ms. Lucero solicited functionaries associated with agencies of Plumas County government to issue legal threats against Treasurer White, an elected official of the county,” Bakes wrote in a Nov. 13, 2023, letter to James, in the county counsel’s office, and Jack W. Hughes, the county’s outside attorney.
That information came in a response to a public records request sent by Bakes to the Feather River Tourism Association. The organization had lodged public complaints with the supervisors over delayed interest payments and other “impediments” caused by the treasurer. In a Sept. 28, 2023, email to Bakes, Sharon Roberts, chair of the tourism association board, said Lucero “specifically asked us to indicate that we needed change or would take legal action.”
Lucero vehemently denied any solicitation of litigation at the Jan. 2 meeting. “So did I go out and instigate panic and say, ‘Hey, yeah, let’s get some litigation going’? No, I didn’t do that,” said a visibly angry Lucero. She cited her 132-page report documenting issues involving the treasurer’s office and efforts to solve them.
“I did not instigate this.”
Julie White, Plumas County treasurer/tax collector
It is the combination of “personal attacks” and frequent “summons” by the board of supervisors that forced White to seek her own attorney, White said.
“I did not instigate this. There was no threat of litigation. There was an email from the county administrator that instigated false litigation. … I had to retain outside counsel because … you cannot have county counsel represent the county employees and someone who has been attacked by this false litigation,” White said.
Breakdown in communications
Controversy over the treasurer’s office, and the threat of litigation lurking over negotiations, has resulted in a breakdown in the communication that might have contributed to resolving issues. White complained publicly at the Jan. 2 board meeting that her requests to the county counsel’s office have gone unanswered. James, who was still interim county counsel at the time, said they should have gone to the board of supervisors, not her office.
“I was being told that I was not allowed to communicate.”
Sara James, Plumas County Counsel’s office
“A response would have been appropriate,” said White.
James replied: “I will note that at that time, I was being told that I was not allowed to communicate.”
That direction did not come from the board of supervisors or the CAO, Hagwood told The Plumas Sun. “There has never been any direction for the county counsel not to communicate with county departments,” he said. He noted that White’s hiring of an attorney impacts the supervisors’ ability to communicate specifically with the treasurer’s office.
Other department heads have reported similar silence from the county counsel, said District Attorney David Hollister. “These are departments that are supposed to provide support for us. Some have either unilaterally decided or have been told that they don’t have to do that for us, and that they don’t have to talk to us. It is a problem and it is impacting our ability to meet our obligations and directly serve Plumas County,” he said.
A majority of the elected officials tried to meet with board leadership last year to discuss this and other issues. They were refused, Hollister said.
As the Jan. 2 discussion over the treasurer’s office came to a close, Hagwood promised to provide White with “every tool that you need.” He then addressed “actions and behaviors” he said are contributing to undefined controversies besetting the county.
“Influences from people perhaps not here today have gravely fed this ugly green monster that is doing nothing but harm to us collectively and to us as individuals. That needs to stop,” Hagwood said.
The supervisors continued discussion of White’s investment authority until Jan. 16. “I have every confidence that we can correct the investment policy and guidelines, and then grant authority to invest,” said Hagwood. The motion by Supervisor Tom McGowan passed 4 to 1, with Supervisor Engel voting no.
White’s request for reimbursement of the cost of hiring an attorney will come back to the supervisors in early February. Supervisor Kevin Goss’s motion to allow more time was approved unanimously.
This story was edited on Jan. 11, 2024, to provide more precise sourcing for a statement by Sharon Roberts.
