Polk County sued by its treasurer who says commissioners illegally changed his duties

For three years since being elected, Polk County Treasurer Steve Milligan said the extent of his work has been to check and forward e-mails and voicemails because county commissioners discarded the traditional duties for the position before he was elected.

Milligan has sued Polk County and administrative officer Greg Hansen, claiming Hansen and the county interfered with his ability to perform duties of the treasurer position that are laid out in state law.

His lawsuit alleges he has been given limited access to things like financial documents and denied the ability to distribute county funds by writing checks.

He told the Statesman Journal that at one point he didn’t go to his office in the basement of Polk County Courthouse in Dallas for nearly a year and still was paid a monthly $1,000 stipend.

“I ran to be the treasurer. I didn’t run to be the stay-at-home get a stipend job,” said Milligan. “And I have the qualifications to be the treasurer.”

His lawsuit asks for access to financial documents and offices of the county, to be given the responsibilities such as distributing and managing money, and $300,000 in damages and back pay.

Polk County’s legal department did not immediately reply to a request for comment about the lawsuit.

Hansen said he had no comment about the lawsuit, and the county has yet to respond to the suit.

Milligan says he didn’t plan on suing the county when he was elected.

“My plan was to have a discussion with the commissioners and say, ‘Let’s fix this,’ which was my discussion with them in December of 2020, shortly before I was sworn in, but I was already elected,” Milligan said. “And they didn’t want to have a discussion with me, they said they wanted it the way Greg wants it.”

Milligan said he reached out to the secretary of state’s office, the attorney general and his state representative but nothing has changed.

Changes to the Polk County treasurer position

Counties hold elections every four years for elected positions including commissioner, sheriff, district attorney, clerk, assessor and treasurer. The job responsibilities for some of those jobs are specified by state law.

State law says the role of a county treasurer is to receive and oversee money brought in by the tax collector and distribute them to taxing districts, oversee bank accounts, prepare monthly and annual financial reports, manage and oversee investing public funds and pay money to the state treasurer.

A number of counties in Oregon, including Marion County, have changed the position to a part-time role and eliminated the money-managing responsibilities as they have hired professional money managers.

Marion County Treasurer Sam Brentano was a county commissioner when the board decided to reduce the role of the position within the county. He was appointed treasurer in 2022 and elected to the position later that year.

Brentano said he is hands off when it comes on to daily operations but oversees how the county handles its funds.

“And the big one with me is you’re kind of the one responsible,” he said.

In 2015, Hansen issued a memo to Polk County Commissioners, advocating to have the county hire a full-time finance manager and not rely on the elected treasurer to be in charge of the millions in tax money the county brings in and distributes every year.

“In my opinion, the County can not let the electoral process play out and hope for the best,” said the memo from Hansen, who has been the administrative officer at Polk County since 1997. He retired from the position in 2017, but has continued on part-time under a contract.

In February 2016, the three county commissioners voted to reduce the role of county treasurer and limit the position to tasks such as approving the disposition of interest earned and delivering the books to their successor.

Polk County Administrative Services Director Matt Hawkins said the county doesn’t have job specifications for its elected positions such as treasurer.

Steve Milligan is elected Polk County treasurer

Milligan said when the commissioners changed the role of treasurer, he wanted to challenge it, but he didn't have any standing. He ran unopposed for county treasurer in 2020.

“I knew it was illegal,” he said, “because the county commissioners have no authority to change Oregon state law, only the legislators do.”

Milligan, 70, has a background in business management and accounting and has held multiple public offices in Polk County.

He was mayor of Monmouth from 2017 to 2018 and was a city councilor for three terms before that. He was briefly a school board member for the Central School District. He also served on budget committees for public bodies.

He spent years managing printing presses in Los Angeles and Oregon, owned and operated a health food grocery store and currently works part-time as an accountant.

In his lawsuit, Milligan said that when he first talked with Hansen about running for treasurer he was told that if he was elected he would have no authority or responsibilities. Days after he was sworn in for the position, a new financial director for the county was hired.

Milligan said that since his first day access to financial documents and the finance office has been limited because he was not issued an access card. He was given "read only" access to Polk County’s digital financial files, he said, and provided a new desk away from other elected officials and financial department staff.

Previous Treasurer Linda Fox was prevented from providing him with public money and financial papers, which also was a violation of state law, he said.

Concerns about Polk County management

Nine counties in the state are charter counties, which get to have some say in their interpretation of state laws and can make some local control of their laws.

Milligan said because Polk County is a non-charter county, its laws are preempted by state laws and it has to follow state laws, including what responsibilities the elected treasurer has.

“The Electors of Polk County who have elected me to do a job based on what little or no understanding they have of the treasurer position, they still elected me to do the job for them,” Milligan said.

“And three commissioners, along with the help of a county administrator and a county attorney can overturn that election is pretty scary.”

Bill Poehler covers Marion and Polk County for the Statesman Journal. Contact him at bpoehler@StatesmanJournal.com

This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: Polk County treasurer claims commissioners broke state law