ST. CLAIRSVILLE — February is the time when property owners must pay the first half of their annual real estate taxes in Ohio, and that leads them to the county auditor’s office. Other than collecting those taxes, though, what does a county auditor do?

Belmont County Auditor Cindi Henry outlined the job and its impact on the county.

According to the County Auditors Association of Ohio, a county auditor is the chief fiscal officer of the county.

“The County Auditor is the bookkeeper for all county elected officials and many other county agencies such as Human Services and Children Services. The County Auditor also keeps books for many ‘outside’ agencies such as park districts, health departments, soil and water conservation districts, and regional planning commissions. As part of that bookkeeping responsibility, the County Auditor pays all the bills for these groups. It is the Auditor’s responsibility to serve as the paymaster for all County employees,” the association’s website states.

Henry said her office is broken into three departments: the Budgetary Office, Weights and Measures, and Real Estate.

The Budgetary Office staff consists of Henry and Chief Deputy Auditor Jacob Debertrand.

“We take care of receiving all of the funds that come into the county. We take them and deposit them with the treasurer,” Henry said. “We also pay all of the bills for all of the agencies. You wouldn’t think that it’s a lot until you look at what all is involved here. We also do the payroll for the entire county.”

She added that she handles the payroll for 750 people who are employed by Belmont County while also ensuring that those employees are enrolled in health insurance.

“We do the total bookkeeping for the actual county itself, primarily the general fund but then we do handle the Belmont County Mental Health and Recovery Board, Senior Services, Water and Sewer Department, etc. We handle all of their bills and pay their payroll,” Henry said.

She added that once she handles the bookkeeping for all of the county-run departments, the Ohio Auditor of State’s Office will come and evaluate what she’s done and inform her if she has any mistakes she needs to fix.

“The state auditor will come in and sit with the commissioners and the agencies that had a few issues, and it may be something really minor but they still have to say, ‘Hey, we don’t like you doing something that way. You need to do it this way,'” Henry said.

The Division of Weights and Measures is run by Justin Bond.

According to Ohio Revised Code Section 319.55, “The auditor shall see that all state laws relating to weights and measures are strictly enforced throughout their county, and shall assist generally in the prosecution of all violations of such laws.”

Henry said Belmont County was involved in a successful lawsuit related to the function of the Weights and Measures Department.

“What happened was if you’d go to a Dollar General and you’d see on the shelving unit would say a bottle of water was $1.25 on the tags, but then you’d get to the register and it’s ringing up for a buck and a half not a buck and a quarter,” she said. “That’s our department’s place — to go to the register and have them ring it up and show that their store is being deceptive to the people.”

According to the Ohio attorney general’s website, “County auditors conduct inspections at retail businesses to make sure products ring up at the correct price. The Dollar General case originated in Butler County, and many other auditors eventually uncovered similar errors upon inspecting Dollar General stores in their counties.

In November 2023, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced that the bulk of a $1 million settlement with Dollar General would go to food banks or other hunger-relief organizations in each of the state’s 88 counties.”

The auditor’s office also is responsible for ensuring that fuel pumps are properly calibrated to deliver the right amount of gasoline or diesel for the correct price.

The third department is Real Estate, which Henry believes has a deceiving name due to the fact that it sells vendors’ licenses, dog licenses, cigarette licenses and kennel licenses.

“What you’ll find in these offices, certain things go on at certain times of the year,” she said. “So even though this person is sitting and doing dog licenses for the months of December and January, they fall off because those are the only two months we truly sell them.”

She added that if someone purchases a dog license in any other month besides December and January. they will have to pay an additional late fee unless it is a new purchase.

With all of that said, Henry noted the job is slowly evolving to enter the world of technology.

“Historically, the county has always been way behind when it comes to IT. When I first started working here in the mid-2000s, we had just at that point gotten email, so we were really behind the times.”

She added that although people in smaller communities may be hesitant to do new things when it comes to technology, she welcomes the challenge.

“A lot of people don’t like change, but I’m all about change. Let’s get with the times here,” she said.

She added that her real estate office converted data to the Ohio based software ISSG three years ago. Since the conversion to the new data, Henry said she was able to locate several errors in residents’ taxes.

“We were able to locate several errors in people’s taxes either being clerical errors or maybe there were changes in the laws that didn’t necessarily adhere to the software that should have,” she said. “That is a plus for when you convert one software to another, that’s when you find out what all of the problems are behind the scenes.”

Henry added that the software she currently uses for payroll for the county allows her to only need to have two employees instead of the four that she believes she would need without the implementation of technology.