The Dutchess County Comptroller's Office has issued subpoenas as part of an audit of the county board of elections' payroll process for election workers.
In a statement released to the press Monday, Comptroller Dan Aymar-Blair said he had issued subpoenas to Dutchess County Board of Elections Commissioners Erik Haight and Lisa Jessup, along with select employees.
Aymar-Blair said these subpoenas were issued to obtain documents and conduct interviews central to his office's investigation. He claims these subpoenas might be the first ever issued by the county comptroller's office and "reflect the unprecedented circumstance of County Commissioners refusing to cooperate with an audit."
According to Haight, the board of elections was "not aware" of the subpoena when reached Monday afternoon.
“We can’t respond to anything we haven’t received," Haight said.
On Monday, Aymar-Blair claimed he had been seeking documents containing information on election worker payroll since April.
“We have been working with the board of elections for a few years on the processing of election worker payroll, and the process has been inefficient and has wasted taxpayer dollars. The way that we help is to dig into the process, policies and procedures to assess what's working and what's not," Aymar-Blair said.
According to Aymar-Blair, the board of elections claims the comptroller's office has no authority in the matter. They have not established a legal opinion to support this stance.
