Who do I complain to about a county comptroller?
November 25, 2020 10:06 AM   Subscribe

The comptroller of my county did something that seems unethical (although probably not illegal). Aside from the voters in the next election, who do they report to?

A trumpy gym owner in my county was fined $15,000 for have a large unmasked gathering (he then held a protest a couple days later about gyms in my Erie being closed). Our grandstanding county comptroller (Erie County, in NY state) set up a gofundme campaign for the guy.

Of course, the comptroller is not profiting financially from this, but this seems to be an ethical violation when one county official is working to circumvent a county-enforced state order.

The comptroller is an elected official, and can be removed by voters, but certainly there must be some other official or office that would field complaints. Would it be the governor's office? The state attorney general? Some other entity? Sending a complaint to our County Executive would just be a formality as he certainly knows that the comptroller is an ass, but has no power over him.
posted by jonathanhughes to Law & Government (7 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: There is an Ethics Board for Erie County, and a little googling suggests this chap, if it's the same one, has been in hot water with the Board in the past.
posted by essexjan at 10:30 AM on November 25, 2020 [4 favorites]


Best answer: The State AG's office is also a good bet.

However, don't expect much. This elected official failed TWO Peer Reviews. (Peer Reviews are required examinations by one auditor of another, to insure that all professional standards are being met.) He failed, and he's still there.
posted by Colonel Sun at 10:40 AM on November 25, 2020 [3 favorites]


Response by poster: Thanks! I'll pursue both routes. Yes, I don't expect much, but it's still important to complain about his nonsense.
posted by jonathanhughes at 11:16 AM on November 25, 2020 [7 favorites]


It might also be worth speaking to someone on the NY desk of the NY Times, see if they'd be interesting in calling this guy to account publicly.
posted by essexjan at 11:43 AM on November 25, 2020 [5 favorites]


Maybe tweet at the Lt. Governer? He seems like a loopy frood who might care. Thanks for getting involved -- you're doing the right thing.
posted by Dashy at 11:43 AM on November 25, 2020 [2 favorites]


Does your local paper do any kind of real reporting? Seems like a story they might be interested in if so. A letter to the editor if nothing else could be useful.

Who handles COVID response in your area? In TX it's county sheriffs. That person could be complained to as well.

Any local FB groups for COVID survivors? They would probably want to know about this guy and could also make some noise via phone calls and letters.

This guy won't care about shame, but he might care about publicity about his behavior.
posted by emjaybee at 12:17 PM on November 25, 2020 [2 favorites]


Yeah I would do everything I could to push this Andy's way, as well as linking through the state media. Local media may not be the best, as the comptroller most certainly still has inside connections from his time as a reporter for two local news stations.
posted by oflinkey at 7:03 AM on November 26, 2020


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