The overarching force behind this year's race for Erie County comptroller is Chris Collins.

The county executive, annoyed by Comptroller Mark C. Poloncarz, has been doing all he can for Republican challenger Philip C. Kadet.

Collins has turned up at Kadet's public events, shipped thousands of dollars in campaign contributions his way and, through his aides, advised the Kadet campaign. He's also recorded a message of support being used on "robo calls" to voters this weekend.

Just days ago, the Collins for Our Future fund kicked $10,000 Kadet's way, and one of his recent appointees, businessman Phil Corwin, gave $5,000.

Many of Collins' gripes about Poloncarz have become Kadet's gripes about Poloncarz.

But what are the issues?

Even Kadet said recently that Poloncarz "hasn't done anything terribly wrong" during four years in office, and in a recent debate accepted Poloncarz's explanation about why he wrongly surmised 2008 would end with a small deficit.

Kadet, like Collins, views Poloncarz as a political animal who has politicized the comptroller's office, both with the people he has appointed to his inner circle and with the audits he has undertaken.

"An audit by its very nature tends to be critical. In the best of circumstances, criticism is not always well received," Kadet said recently. "With political baggage, it becomes even more difficult to accept."

He cites this example of a political-minded audit: After Team Collins told two Poloncarz aides they could no longer park in the Rath County Office Building garage, Poloncarz audited how the county awards free parking in county-owned lots. The overriding finding: Know the county executive.

Kadet points out that Poloncarz's chief auditor, Michael Szukala, is a veteran of Democratic campaigns. The wife of his associate deputy, Timothy C. Callan, once worked as the Democratic Party's executive director. A now-former aide, Diane Terranova, filled the Legislature vacancy created when Kathy Konst of Lancaster went to work for Collins.

"Those things don't happen by accident," Kadet said.

Look at Poloncarz's campaign donors — a slew of public employee unions are among them, Kadet says.

But look at Kadet's donors, Poloncarz says.

"He says I'm taking my contributions from Democratic folks. I'm a Democrat," Poloncarz responded recently. "He's taking his contributions from Republicans."

Assorted business people who want more county business are on the list.

Kadet, 66, resides in East Aurora. He is a certified public accountant whose entire career was based on service to one firm, Lumsden and McCormick. He spent 30 years there, the last 12 as its managing partner.

He likes to point out that when the firm was serving Erie County in the early 1980s he and his team blew the whistle on 1983's massive deficit.

Did they?

As legislators wrestled with the revelation of a structural deficit, the overriding belief was that Lathan, Lumsden, McCormick and Co., as the firm was known at the time, had found a deficit of $13.4 million for 1983.

The deficit turned out to be around $40 million, and the months-long tumult caused by that second surprise still has lingering effects. County leaders added a penny to the sales tax rate, the "temporary penny" still in place almost 25 years later.

Legislators expanded the power of the comptroller's office, to make the comptroller the county's chief financial officer and give him more access to financial data. The county formed a broad-based audit committee that would supplant the county executive in selecting the outside accounting firm. The County Charter now requires that auditors produce a "management letter" to plainly explain issues in the financial statements.

Most critics believed that then-County Executive Edward Rutkowski for too long kept the grisliest deficit numbers to himself. Kadet says his firm presented Rutkowski with a report showing the deficit could be interpreted as around $50 million when considering the damage Erie County Medical Center could inflict.

But when asked in July 1984 why the Lumsden firm had not warned lawmakers sooner about a sizable deficit, Kadet said there was no established procedure to communicate with the Legislature.

"It is not our job to run to the general public or to the legislators," Kadet said. "We are not the county administration ... we cannot take it upon ourselves [to do so]."

Flashing forward to today, Kadet explained that the firm's client, Erie County, was represented by the county executive.

To Poloncarz, Kadet does not realize the comptroller acts as a financial watchdog on the public's behalf.

"He looks at the office strictly as a bean counter. It's not," said Poloncarz, who made his living as a lawyer before being elected in 2005, after the worst of the county's mid-decade financial crisis had passed. He's 41 and lives in Buffalo.

"It is a public watchdog position. Every time there is a fiscal crisis, more power is given to the comptroller," Poloncarz said. "It's as if the public doesn't trust the county executive and doesn't trust the Legislature but knows they can trust the comptroller's office."

He's happy that he hired Szukala as his auditing director. Yes, Szukala has been active in political campaigns, but he's also a career civil servant with a master's degree in business administration and is certified as an internal auditor.

Under his direction, the office has done more audits than Poloncarz's predecessor, Nancy A. Naples, on subjects such as jail overtime, payroll practices in various departments, and the use of wireless devices by county employees. And it won the 2007 Bronze-level Knighton Award for small auditing departments — the first municipal government auditor in New York to do so.

Callan has a doctorate in political science and has worked for county government since March 2003.

"Look at where we were in 2005 as compared with today," Poloncarz said. "We had the worst credit rating of any county in New York. We don't have that any more. I am not giving credit to myself. We have had surpluses because of good checks and balances in government."

While Erie County still needs yearly bridge loans, it borrows less each year to tide itself over until reimbursements for social programs arrive from the state and federal governments. In September 2008, when the state-appointed control board was unable to close on a bridge loan for the government, Poloncarz closed a $75 million deal within days so the count could pay its bills.

Poloncarz said Kadet cannot be independent of Collins if elected. The county executive has been too big a force in his campaign.

"He has admitted he has been handpicked by the Republican Committee, which is Chris Collins, who has held fundraisers for him at his house," Poloncarz said. "Some of his department heads have given to him. How can he get in here and say, "I'm truly independent.' "

mspina@buffnews.com

Copyright 2009, The Buffalo News