Chris Patoine, chairman of the Polk County Planning Commission, is challenging the incumbent Polk County Treasurer Steve Milligan in the Nov. 5 general election. The race comes on the heels of a legal decision with major implications for how the winner will do his job. A state judge on Sept. 20 ruled that Polk County illegally stripped its elected treasurer of their duties starting in 2016. Milligan alleged in a lawsuit last November that the county had whittled down the treasurer’s salary to almost zero and assigned work of that office to an unelected county official. He now expects the treasurer to be restored to a full-time position and an annual salary of around $101,000.  The case won’t be fully resolved until after Milligan’s attorney submits a draft order summarizing the judge’s findings for signature. He has until Oct. 20 to do so, and then Polk County will have 30 days to appeal the judge’s ruling. Under state law, duties of a county treasurer include receiving and paying out county money, keeping treasury books and issuing monthly financial statements. Polk County has a roughly $125 million annual budget. Milligan was elected treasurer in 2020. He ran unopposed. If re-elected, he said his first priority would be to “make sure that what’s being done right continues to be done right.”  He also said he’d need to build relationships with county officials who opposed his lawsuit, as well as employees whose work is disrupted by the changes to the treasurer job. If adjustments need to be made, “I’m not going to be a wrecking ball,” he said. “We’ve got to work together as a team to move the county forward.” Patoine has been the planning commission chair since 2021. He is also a member of the Mid-Willamette Valley Area Commission on Transportation and secretary of the Rickreall Community Water Board. If Patoine is elected and the treasurer’s authority is expanded, he said he would adapt to any changes. But he believes that Milligan’s lawsuit was “a huge waste” of taxpayer money. “An elected official should be looking out for the welfare of his electorate, first and foremost,” he said. “This lawsuit did not help the people of Polk County.” The treasurer is a nonpartisan position with a four-year term. The winner will take office on Jan. 6, 2025. Steve Milligan Name: Steve Milligan Party: Nonpartisan Age: 71 Residence: Monmouth Occupation: Polk County treasurer Education: Chemeketa Community College, Associate in Computer Science and Associate in Accounting  Previous governmental experience: City of Monmouth – mayor, city councilor, planning commissioner, budget committee and urban renewal district director; Central School District budget committee and school board; Mid-Willamette Valley Council of Governments Board  Milligan was 14 when he worked his first management job – counting out all the Seattle Times newspapers at a supermarket shack and preparing them for other kids to deliver. When they went on summer vacations, he ran three or four routes. “My management has always been about, you get the whole job done. You don’t just get part of the job done,” he said. Milligan went on to work more than ten years in accounting and financial management for several businesses and nonprofits.  In most of the nonprofits, he said he was either the chair, treasurer or founder. While working at a printing plant in California, he said he moved $36 million worth of printing across his desk. “I’ve always been working with numbers, and numbers come secondhand to me,” he said. When he moved from Portland to Monmouth in 1998, he wanted to run for city council but didn’t know much about the city. So, he sat in every city council meeting for two years and asked many questions.  Milligan served Monmouth for 16 years as a mayor, city councilor, planning commissioner, budget committee member and urban renewal district director. He was mayor from 2017 to 2018.  Milligan said when he was elected treasurer, he knew his new job would be little more than a title and wanted to fix that. He recently told Salem Reporter that the county’s use of the treasurer as a figurehead violates the oath he took when he first held public office over 20 years ago to uphold the U.S. Constitution and Oregon law.  Milligan said he has been comparing financial records with bank statements to check for accuracy in his own personal accounts, businesses and nonprofits for almost 40 years. “For an accountant, the size of the number isn’t intimidating. It’s making sure it’s posted in the right place and posted correctly,” he said. “If the number gets in the wrong place with numbers that size, it can be a problem. So, you do want somebody who’s detail-oriented enough to be able to see it, and that’s me.” The claims in Milligan’s lawsuit stemmed from a 2016 resolution unanimously approved by then-Polk County Commissioners Jennifer Wheeler and Mike Ainsworth, as well as current Commissioner Craig Pope, that transferred the treasurer’s duties to its finance manager, an unelected position overseen by the county administrator. Those changes were reiterated in an ordinance created earlier this year. After filing the lawsuit, Milligan told Salem Reporter that the county paid him a $1,000 monthly stipend, which amounts to one-fifth of full-time pay, and that his day-to-day work amounted to “nothing.” Milligan alleged that county officials wouldn’t allow him to use the county offices where those responsible for financial management work. He was not given a key and was instead assigned to a small office space in the basement of the Polk County Courthouse. He said that the county gave him the authority to sign checks when drawing from the county’s bank accounts but did not allow him to pay out money from the county treasury. By the time he got the documentation, the work was already done. “I didn’t really understand what I was supposed to be signing off on,” he said. A Yamhill County Circuit Court Judge, who presided over Milligan’s case after all three Polk County judges recused themselves, found that the county’s removal of the treasurer’s duties was unlawful. The judge declined to rule on other claims made in the lawsuit, including back pay that Milligan was seeking, saying that was a matter of county concern. Under state law, the treasurer also has the authority to invest excess funding.  Milligan said the county currently puts such funding into a government investment pool. That’s been earning well, he said, “but there are better ways to earn money than that. And yet, for the last several years, the county hasn’t been doing any kind of research into that, and I was completely shut out of that component.” Milligan said he should be re-elected because he thoroughly understands the duties of the job, and he has the necessary skills in accounting, management and relationship-building. If Milligan is re-elected, he said his relationship skills will be put to the test. He recognizes that any changes that his lawsuit may bring to the treasurer’s job will be disruptive to more than just county officials.  “I’ve been in enough companies where management changes have happened quite radically,” he said. “I know how to work with people in disruptive environments to help keep them calmed down.” Milligan said he would also need to have open conversations with the commissioners to ensure they can work together to most efficiently serve Polk County citizens. Some of those discussions may need to be facilitated, he said. If the judge orders the county to change its handling of the treasurer, he said he hopes that the commissioners take it seriously and don’t fight it. “They need to know that I’m not out there to blow it up,” he said. Milligan said the situation reminds him of his time as an umpire. “Because I called one of your runners out and it cost you the game-winning run doesn’t make me the bad guy. Your runner was out, and I guess that’s kind of where I am with them,” he said of the commissioners. “You broke the law, you violated the rule and now you need to do it according to the rules.” Chris Patoine Name: Chris Patoine Party: Nonpartisan Age: 56 Residence: Eola Occupation: Retired Education: Master in Business Administration, Portland State University; Bachelor in Business/Economics, George Fox College; Associate in Business, Umpqua Community College; Transit and Community Transportation Management Certificate, Willamette University Previous governmental experience: Polk County Planning Commission (current chairman), Mid-Willamette Valley Area Commission on Transportation (current member), Rickreall Community Water Association (Current secretary), City of Dallas Budget Committee, Umpqua Community College Business Advisory Committee, Umpqua Transit Transportation Advisory Committee, Translink Advisory Committee Patoine said the treasurer position needs to be somebody who understands finance and can manage budgets large and small.  He believes his knack for numbers, work experience and business education warrant his election as treasurer. “Math tells a story,” he said. “I believe I can read that story.” Patoine worked for seven years as a district manager for Ferrellgas, which he said supplied propane for most of Lane and Douglas counties. That work included going through the company’s accounting records and operating statements. He spent nearly three years teaching business-related courses at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg. Patoine then became the transit coordinator for the Umpqua Regional Council of Governments. For a year, he oversaw the region’s transportation services, which included “revamping the bus system,” he said. He then worked for the next 10 years as the owner and manager of Medlink, a non-emergency medical transportation company that drove people to get medical care all along the Interstate 5 corridor, from Portland to Medford. While working that job, Patoine moved to Dallas in 2014. He joined the Polk County Planning Commission in 2020. The following year, he became chairman and also served on Dallas’ budget committee. Patoine’s wife, Valerie Patoine, is the Polk County assessor. He believes the work he’s done and the relationships he’s built in Polk County have put him in a position to help the county “get out of this treasurer mess that they’re in right now.” “I would not be running if the current treasurer was showing up and doing the job,” he said. Patoine considered running for treasurer four years ago. With his wife being the assessor, he said he made sure at the time that there was no conflict of interest. But he was his wife’s campaign manager during that election and didn’t think he could devote the time. “When someone else filed, I said, ‘Hey, I hope they do a good job,’” he recalled. “I am a reluctant politician. I did not at any point say I want to be involved in politics,” he said, laughing. “But I am an informed voter, and I do like to keep track of these issues.” Patoine sees the treasurer as “the watchdog of county finances, sticking their nose in the financial business of the county and being able to track where the dollars are going,” he said. “You’re the auditor. You’re the one that makes sure everything’s on the up-and-up.” He said the treasurer needs to be accessible to concerned citizens who have questions about county spending.  He also wants to use his education and experience to identify ways to save county money, improve processes and bolster security. Patoine said he believes it would be better to have county money handled by a financial manager who is a certified public accountant and went through a competitive process, as opposed to an elected treasurer who under state law only needs to be 18 and have lived in the county for over a year. He said the commissioners had that in mind when they wrote the 2016 resolution. “They didn’t know it was going to be me. They didn’t know it was going to be Steve Milligan. They were just looking out for Polk County,” he said. “It’s hard to disagree with the action that was taken. They protected public funds.” Patoine said the treasurer has continued to have oversight and access to the county’s financial information. “I don’t want to walk around with the Polk County checkbook,” he said. “I don’t necessarily want the keys to the safe or access to everything. I do want to be able to look at it when I want to look at it.” People can call the job a figurehead, he said, but the treasurer has some authority. He said he would never sign something that he doesn’t understand or agree with. “If I see something at the treasurer’s office that’s a problem, I am going to shout it from the rooftops,” he said. When Patoine learned about Milligan’s lawsuit, he recalled thinking, “How does that serve the public good?” Patoine believes the dispute could’ve been settled differently without a lawsuit.  He said he was disappointed and frustrated by the judge’s ruling. If it stands, he said, he doesn’t see the treasurer’s job changing much other than some added authority. But in the future, he said the county’s budget could end up in the hands of an unqualified candidate who runs unopposed. “Someone with a two-year degree in basket weaving could be elected, and they may not even have any financial background or experience,” he said. “How many corrupt politicians have we gotten in the history of this country?” Patoine said he doesn’t want to see the county appeal the judge’s ruling “because it wastes a lot more money.” “I will do the job regardless of how this court case turns out and give the treasurer’s office a fresh start,” he said. “By winning the lawsuit, he puts the county finances more at risk,” he said of Milligan. “As a resident of Polk County, that’s what I want people to know.” Patoine said he hasn’t seen Milligan at budget committee meetings or at the State of the County.  “He’s going to make $48,000, and he really hasn’t done anything,” Patoine said. “No one’s stopped him from doing the job he actually ran for that was advertised and developed in 2016.” Campaign Money Here are totals for each campaign as reported by the state Elections Division as of Oct. 18. To look into individual donations and expenditures, start with this state website: Campaign finance. STEVE MILLIGAN Contributions: $1,569. Expenditures: $1,378. Cash on hand: $191.Top donors: Steve Milligan ($700); EM Easterly ($470); miscellaneous cash contributions $100 and under ($299); Danny Jaffer ($100) CHRIS PATOINE The state Elections Division showed no campaign finance information for Patoine because he has not created a candidate committee. Candidates aren’t required to do so if they don’t expect to receive or spend more than $750 during a calendar year, they serve as their own treasurer and they don’t have an existing committee, according to the state campaign finance manual. Contact reporter Ardeshir Tabrizian: [email protected] or 503-929-3053. A MOMENT MORE, PLEASE– If you found this story useful, consider subscribing to Salem Reporter if you don’t already. Work such as this, done by local professionals, depends on community support from subscribers. Please take a moment and sign up now – easy and secure: SUBSCRIBE. The post After suing Polk County, treasurer seeks reelection against challenger focused on fiscal oversight appeared first on Salem Reporter.