County executive wants treasurer removed

STEVENS POINT - Portage County Treasurer Stephanie Stokes offered illegal tax waivers to property owners and falsified records, and she needs to be removed from office, according to County Executive Patty Dreier.

RELATED: County owes $20K on late tax payments

RELATED: No answers 1 year after treasurer probe starts

Dreier on Friday filed charges before the Portage County Board accusing Stokes of "inefficiency, neglect of duty (and) official misconduct or malfeasance in office."

She said a yearlong investigation by attorneys hired by the county revealed Stokes' wrongdoing.

Stokes could not be immediately reached for comment.

RELATED:Read the attorney's report

RELATED:Read the charges against the Portage County treasurer

In a separate statement sent to media, Dreier said she could no longer wait for a separate investigation by the state Department of Justice and local police to conclude; that probe also has been going on for more than a year and has resulted in no criminal or other charges.

Specifically, Dreier's charges accuse Stokes of:

• Giving various property owners breaks on the interest they owed on delinquent taxes and falsifying county records to hide the breaks. One of those was her deputy treasurer, Amy Townsend, who was allowed in August 2015 to avoid interest penalties on late payments after Stokes altered records in the county's database, the charges state. Dreier's charges don't say how much interest was involved, but they do say that Stokes has denied the allegations. If true, those accusations comprise felony misconduct in office, according to Dreier's charges.
• Neglecting the duties of her office by failing to make legally required payments. That charge involves money that Stokes was to send to schools and four municipalities in August as part of her duties as the county's property tax collector. Her failure to send the money on time cost the county more than $20,000 in penalties, Dreier said.

An operational audit conducted in the Treasurer's Office in 2013 by financial firm Baker Tilly noted that delinquent taxes were not handled consistently. The audit report states residents were made aware of the opportunity to establish a payment plan for back taxes only if they were directly contacted by the treasurer's office and that the office has no documented policy allowing people to pay the taxes in installments.

"This could result in perceived or actual favoritism and unnecessarily expose the county to liability and reputational damage," the report warned.

The report recommended the office develop a policy and written agreement regarding paying back taxes.

County officials confirmed in late 2015 that internal and police investigations were ongoing into the treasurer's office. No one has commented for the past year on why the investigations began, when they would end or what they had uncovered, other than to say Townsend's resignation could be connected.

A county committee subsequently hired an attorney to conduct an additional investigation. According to the attorney's report, Stokes declined to be interviewed for the independent investigation and instructed her deputy, Lisa Burant, not to meet with the attorney. Portage County Corporation Counsel Mike McKenna agreed to an interview but declined to answer some questions about Stokes' conduct and activities, the report stated. His deputy, David Hickethier, declined to be interviewed.

Stokes wrote a narrative of the events, according to the attorney's report. She stated she tried to protect Townsend when county officials first questioned her about her backdated interest payment, but stated she had nothing to do with it. She argues in the document that her office was "the subject of harassment and intimidation" by Dreier.

Dreier criticized Stokes' office this year for failing to release payments totaling more than $200,000 to county employees and vendors.

County Board Chairman Phil Idsvoog could not be immediately reached for comment Friday. Don Butkowski, one of the two vice chairmen of the board, said the board members know little about the investigations and will have to read all the information before making a decision about Dreier's charges. He said he is aware of some errors such as the missed tax settlements and complaints from some county staff about the department.

"We really have to wait and see what the facts are as presented to the board," he said.