The Starke County Commissioners held a special meeting Thursday afternoon to discuss an issue with Treasurer-elect Lauri Venckus’ bond.
County Attorney Marty Lucas explained that Venckus was unable to get a bond so other means had to be taken to ensure she could assume her duties in the Treasurer’s Office at the beginning of the year.
Lucas commented that by state statute, Venckus has to be bonded in order to preside over the office and a crime insurance policy. Lucas, along with Auditor Rachel Oesterreich and the commissioners, have been working with the county’s insurance agent and State Board of Accounts Director Paul Joyce. With that collaboration, a policy was drafted to allow Venckus to take office in pursuant to a bond.
Lucas said until the time Venckus can take office Deputy Treasurer Rhonda Graves will hold the bond for the office.
County officials are anticipating the issue to be cleared up in 30 days or so.
State Representative Jim Pressel stated that he will be working on legislation to change the requisite of bonding of the treasurer and continue under a blanket bond of the county.
“There’s no qualification to run for a treasurer,” stated Pressel. “So, if the bond requirement is going to be in statute, like it is, and be separate from any other bonding for municipalities or counties that need to have those bonds, then it should be listed as a requirement before you run for the office.
“There’s a couple of things going on. We have a treasurer that was elected by the people and to get rid of the treasurer because of a technicality on this, which is not a requirement, is a direct conflict. It’s something I’m going to work on in this session and try to amend it into some election code. We just have to change words that say ‘treasurer’ and incorporate it into a blanket for everyone.”
Starke County also has blanket bond, but it is state statute that the treasurer has to have a separate bond. Oesterreich said Starke County is not the only county to be dealing with this issue.
In the meantime, the commissioners adopted an ordinance on all three readings that would allow the use of a crime insurance policy until a bond is secured. They also approved the bond through the deputy treasurer. A policy letter from the State Board of Accounts was also approved to be included in the record.
