The County Council’s 2023 IRS million-dollar fines scandal should serve as a powerful catalyst for government transparency. This case underscored the importance of robust public monthly Council reviews of the County’s Payment Register to ensure transparency and accountability for taxpayer money. In a nutshell, the scandal, spanning six years of alleged non-compliance with federal ACA regulations, resulted in a lone county employee issuing unbudgeted, non-compliant, and unapproved checks exceeding $1.15 million for IRS fines. The initial penalties, totaling $1,719,574, were for tax years 2017 ($357,740), 2019 ($370,710), 2020 ($386,120), 2021 ($357,000), and 2022 ($247,044). Eventually, one check was written to the IRS on May 4, 2023, for $386,769.51 for the tax period December 31, 2022, and one was written on June 1, 2023, for $768,709.94 for the tax period December 12, 2020, according to the county’s payment register.
To everyone’s dismay, the scandal’s prolonged public disclosure did not occur until five months after the million dollars in checks were issued without approval or budget allocation. Surely, that obvious attempt to avoid transparency served to further erode public, outside investor, and state government trust in Fairfield’s government. That “hidden ball trick” also served to limit the remedy options for the right corrections to the million-dollar fiasco which the county mightily struggled with while under the cloak of darkness. However, when the crisis finally came to light, the ensuing public outcry plus the then-forced transparency did lead to the enlisting of costly outside expertise to rectify the situation, ultimately reducing the total cost of the fiasco to under $300,000. Of course, uncalculated brand erosion has to also be counted in the ultimate price total. Transparency works and would have saved a boatload of taxpayer money and much angst throughout the county if monthly public Payment Register reviews were a regular habit.
The aforementioned expensive incident further highlights the value of transparency and proactive governance in rebuilding citizen confidence and ensuring effective and efficient county management, which is paramount for citizens voting for a penny tax referendum. Certainly, a regular public review of the County’s Payment Register entries will not only prevent further costly mistakes but also help to restore trust in the county government.
Randy Bright
Ridgeway
