Outgoing Butler County Sheriff Denny Rickard acknowledges his record-keeping may not be "accountant-friendly," but he disputes the contention that his financial documentation is in such disarray that it can't be audited.

County commissioners, however, voted last Wednesday to hire a Pittsburgh firm to put the sheriff's records in order at a rate of $95 an hour, not to exceed $95,760.

It is the second time this decade the firm has been retained to organize the records of the sheriff's office. The county paid $65,000 for the work the first time.

The sheriff has not been accused of any fiscal improprieties, and none were found the last time professionals went into his office to organize his records.

Mr. Rickard is leaving office after three decades as sheriff, and state law requires that a complete audit be carried out. The trouble is, the firm that ordinarily would do the audit -- the county's independent, outside auditing firm Maher Duessel -- has said it can't be done.

"[The documents] could not be audited by either the controller or Maher Duessel," the firm concluded in a report to the county earlier this year.

Which brought the commissioners to the point last week of voting unanimously to hire Grossman Yanak & Ford to organize the records for the period between 2003 and 2009.

In 2004, the same firm was hired to put the records in order for the years between 1999 and 2002.

County Controller Jack McMillin said that he has had to help county offices and departments with an array of accounting issues over the years, but the county never has had to hire an outside firm to organize anyone's records other than the sheriff's.

Mr. Rickard had no explanation for the situation except to say that he believes his records are auditable.

In a report reviewing its 2008 accounting findings, Maher Duessel said the sheriff's office had combined year-end bank balances of $2.2 million but "was unable to produce reconciliations for the beginning or ending of the year that summarized amounts due to the county, amounts due to other governments and amounts escrowed for payment to third parties."

Maher Duessel also noted: "The county hired [the Grossman firm] to compile the financial records of the sheriff's office for the calendar years 1999 through 2002. No procedures were put into effect to carry this work forward, either internally or by an outside firm, in order to produce similar financial records for calendar years 2003 or after. In addition, internal control procedures have not been adopted or documented regarding basic bookkeeping procedures, such as monthly bank reconciliations."

Maher Duessel has said it would complete audits on the years between 2003 and 2009 once the Grossman firm compiles the records.

At the meeting last week in which the commissioners voted to hire the Pittsburgh firm, Mr. McMillin waved a 2-inch stack of memos he said he has sent to various county officials in recent years, sounding an alarm about the record-keeping in the sheriff's office.

The battle between Mr. Rickard and Mr. McMillin has been back and forth, even bouncing briefly before the Common Pleas Court system when the sheriff filed a civil suit against the controller for his remarks. The case ultimately was withdrawn.

Sheriff-elect Mike Slupe said when he was campaigning for office that he would keep his office's records in good condition, though he took no position on the state of Mr. Rickard's records management.

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