10/21/2026
Elected or appointed? I’m sorry to beat this horse, but this decision is huge for Washington County and I want people to be informed.
Absentee voting is underway. Before you mark your ballot, make sure you understand the referendum question:
“Shall the position of elected County Treasurer be abolished and replaced with a Treasurer appointed by the County Commissioners?”
You are NOT voting on whether Washington County will have a Treasurer. The Treasurer’s position and statutory responsibilities remain. You are deciding WHO chooses the Treasurer.
If you vote YES: You are voting to abolish the elected position after the current term ends. The Commissioners would appoint the Treasurer, set the compensation, and the appointed Treasurer would serve at their will. Supporters may prefer this arrangement because it gives the Commissioners direct control over who holds the office and may allow closer coordination with county administration. (30-A M.R.S. § 156.)
If you vote NO: You are voting to keep the Treasurer as an elected county office, so Washington County voters continue choosing who serves. Maine law requires an elected Treasurer to be a county resident and bars certain officials from holding the office at the same time. In plain English: the voters continue choosing the Treasurer. (30-A M.R.S. § 151.)
I will be voting NO.
The Treasurer is the statutory keeper of the county’s funds. That does not mean the Treasurer has to personally do the finance office’s daily bookkeeping or data entry. Qualified finance staff can maintain the books and enter transactions while the Treasurer carries out the office’s statutory responsibilities.
That also gives the Treasurer an opportunity to check that required steps are being followed before taxpayer money goes out the door. Maine law requires county claims to be itemized and public, and county money is paid out under written orders from the Commissioners. (30-A M.R.S. § 173.)
Washington County now has a qualified Finance Director in place, effective June 2026. The question is not whether the county should have qualified people managing its finances. It should and it does. The question is whether the TREASURER should be chosen by the voters or appointed by the Commissioners.
Stacking another paid finance position on top of a qualified Finance Director would not automatically make the department more efficient. It could add cost and duplicate work, depending on how the responsibilities are assigned. I see the elected Treasurer as a limited, modestly compensated public service role: a person who wants to serve, works alongside the finance staff, and acts as a gatekeeper for taxpayers’ money. That role does not require creating another full-time finance operation.
The audit timeline shows why finance office staffing matters. The spreadsheet I previously shared shows clean opinions for 2012 through 2014, when properly qualified Judith “Judy” Alexander was listed as Financial Accountant/Manager. The 2015 financial statements also received a clean opinion. The spreadsheet notes that Judy resigned in November 2015. The 2016 audit was mixed: the General Fund received a clean opinion, but the auditor could not give an opinion on several countywide funds because records were unavailable.
The timing is notable: the clean audit results were followed by serious record problems after the finance office lost an experienced and qualified manager. That sequence does not prove her departure caused the later problems. It does show why capable finance staff and continuity matter.
An elected Treasurer serves a four-year term and answers to voters. An appointed Treasurer serves at the Commissioners’ will. That difference creates a real concern: a Treasurer whose job depends on the Commissioners may feel less comfortable questioning a payment or raising a concern about how public money is being handled. That does not mean every appointee would stay silent. It means the structure makes the Treasurer’s independence and accountability to voters matter. (30-A M.R.S. §§ 151, 156.)
Folks, I have no formal finance training, yet I have been able to learn enough about county budgets and fund accounting to understand the issues, recognize the patterns and ask informed questions. My background in educational leadership helped me make sense of complex financial information. I am not suggesting that this makes me an accountant or qualifies me to keep the county’s books. My point is that an elected Treasurer can learn to understand the records and ask questions while qualified finance staff handle the technical accounting work.
I have serious concerns about whether some Commissioners have demonstrated even a general understanding of their duties. I am not willing to transfer voters’ authority over this office to them.
Please understand what your vote will do. I will vote NO to keep the Treasurer elected and accountable to the taxpayers.
