There’s a 291-thousand dollar hole in the Chelan County Sheriff’s budget. Who’s accountable? In a story we first reported on KOZI last week, County Commissioner Keith Goehner claimed former Sheriff Mike Harum was at fault for failing to report his department’s overspending.

However, former Sheriff Harum insists that he continually kept Commissioners apprized of the looming budget shortfall and he puts the blame squarely in their court. Harum says his communications can be documented in recordings of the commission meetings, and he strongly objects to the allegations of wrongdoing on his part: However the county’s chief accountant Brad Posenjack disagrees with Harum’s assessment of the accountability question.

The bottom line now is that the county will have to balance the budget by tapping into the county’s rainy day reserve fund. Commissioner Goehner says any additional cuts that have to be made will be spread among all the departments and not just the Sheriff’s department.

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