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Commissioners still have questions after SOE audit
The new Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections Phyllis Busansky is now dealing with the financial mess.
HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY (Bay News 9) -- The audit of the Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections' Office is complete and county commissioners say they are not getting the answers they want.
Last month former Supervisor of Elections Buddy Johnson asked for an extra $2.3 million to cover unexpected expenses, blaming the November elections for most of the problems. Johnson later withdrew that request.
However, county commissioners ordered an audit into Johnson's budget to find out what was going on.
Commissioners say they wanted to know why Johnson needed $2.3 million to balance his 2008 budget, but the audit didn't give them the answer. Instead they're left with even more questions.
"Too much uncertainty, and too many questions that have been unresolved," said Pat Frank, clerk of the circuit court in Hillsborough County.
Frank conducted the audit. She says Johnson's office did not give them enough information to conduct a complete review.
But she says the information they did receive is causing concern. Frank says the county allocated $5.7 million to Johnson to help pay for the new Premier Election Solutions voting system.
However, she says in the audit they found anywhere from $450,000 to $1.2 million may still be owed.
Johnson also said he needed an extra $32,000 to cover overtime expenses. But the audit discovered overtime costs totaled $336,000.
"We're in a situation where we're trying to have a budget amendment for '09 which really meant funds were spent out of '09 budget in '08 without board approval," Frank said.
Frank says her office recommends paying the overtime, but suggests holding out on everything else until they can figure out where all the money was spent.
The financial mess now falls in the lap of the new Supervisor of Elections Phyllis Busanky.
"It's unknown right now, and that's something you have to be very worrisome about when you're dealing with the public's money -- tax dollars," Busansky said. "You want to know, and you want to be very sure you know what's there and what's happening."
Johnson did not want to do an on-camera interview for the story, but he did talk to Bay News 9 on the phone.
He says despite the results from the audit, he wants people to know every dollar from his budget can be accounted for.
He also says he never misused any of the funds.
Johnson also said the final payment for the new voting system was never finalized before he left office. He said the clerk's office was very unclear about what they needed from his office for the audit.
Both Frank and Busansky say despite what has happened, it's now time to move forward and find out what was spent and why.
County commissioners plan to meet Wednesday to discuss the budget and the unaccounted-for funds.
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