If you ask 10 random people on the street what a comptroller does, I’d venture to guess not a lot of them have a grasp of the position. In all fairness, I had no idea myself before I started covering governments.

Erie County Comptroller Mark Poloncarz recently took the time to update me on what his office is doing, both in the short and long term. The duties are varied, from performing audits and handling county finances to working out deals for a social services benefit card and updating the way county departments handle their books. While a lot of those projects might not grab headlines, Poloncarz said they keep the county running smoothly and efficiently.

“Overhauling the accounting procedures in Erie County doesn’t sound very sexy, but it needs to be done,” Poloncarz said. “It hasn’t been done in 30 years and many of the systems are outdated.”

But in between other responsibilities, the comptroller also has to manage a reelection campaign this year. County Executive Chris Collins named Poloncarz as one of the three officials he sees as a hindrance to county government operations, but Poloncarz said county government couldn’t operate if that was the case.

“What the county executive says is not necessarily what is happening in reality,” Poloncarz said. “If I was an obstructionist, nothing would get done.”

He pointed to the recent successful borrowing agreement — resolving a three-year stalemate — as evidence of that cooperation. But Collins said the county attorney did most of the work on that deal and the administration and control board did the rest. What the comptroller’s office does, in the executive’s mind, is look for ways to embarrass his office by auditing things like $6 freight charges and the purchase of a replacement refrigerator for one that broke.

“They work overtime to nitpick and look for anything they can blow out of proportion and distort,” Collins said. “Their audits always bend over backward to distort the truth. They’re not independent and they always have a negative twist.”

Poloncarz said his office’s audits only point out when regular procedures aren’t being followed, and that Collins’ private sector background makes him unaccustomed to meeting any resistance from his chief financial officer. The refrigerator debate is something Poloncarz said ended up being petty on all sides over something simple that should have never escalated. But government’s checks and balances give the comptroller nothing but a ‘bully pulpit,’ the ability to point out flaws in county government and make recommendations.

“That’s all I can do on my own,” Poloncarz said. “Changes need executive and legislative approval.”

But Collins doesn’t like the way the comptroller’s office is run and has pledged to support the Republican candidate to unseat Poloncarz in this year’s election. Collins said he wants someone who is more cooperative and less political; Poloncarz said Collins wants a yes man and pointed out that during 2004 and 2005, when the county was well on its way to a financial meltdown, the executive’s office, legislature and comptroller’s office were all on the same page. He’s confident that now people are paying closer attention to the county’s financial state, and is optimistic voters will approve of the job he’s doing.

“We don’t have to agree on everything,” Poloncarz said. “We do have to work together and we do work together. But some disagreement is the key to better government.”

Copyright 2009 - The Tonawanda News