WARREN — Trumbull County Auditor Martha Yoder is seeking to recover $1,192,359 that her office’s real estate assessment fund paid to half of the employees working in the county’s tax map program since 2019.

Yoder, during the commissioners’ weekly workshop, sought to get clarification from Commissioners Rick Hernandez and Tony Bernard on whether and/or how the county would reimburse her office. Commissioner Denny Malloy did not attend Tuesday’s workshop.

The commissioners would not provide a definitive answer on their position because they are not clear whether they are required to refund the money and, if required, whether the amount being sought from Yoder is what is owed. They also asked whether the amount — whatever it is — could be repaid in installments.

The issue stems from a 2019 ruling by the state attorney general’s office that the tax map office and its employees should have been in the engineer’s office. For several years prior to the 2019 ruling, the tax map office had been in the auditor’s office.

The office and its employees still reside in the auditor’s office.

Yoder and Trumbull County Engineer David DeChristofaro have been arguing where it should be located.

The tax map office reviews and approves surveys done by professional surveyors that indicate boundary lines for the county, reviews property descriptions and does custom mapping, deed transfers and approvals. The GIS program that is used to do the mapping belongs to the auditor’s office.

Tax map employees were assigned to the auditor’s office prior to Yoder taking office in 2023. Yoder noted that she attempted to get clarification.

A tentative proposal previously was agreed upon that would transfer two auditor’s office employees to the engineer’s office.

The employees in the tax map office were entirely paid through the auditor’s REA fund.

In 2019, when the state auditor made his initial ruling, the number of tax map employees was five. Now, there are four tax map employees.

Yoder told the commissioners to calculate the amount that should be reimbursed by the total compensation the employees were paid, including salary, health benefits, etc.

However, based on the interpretation of the AG’s ruling, it is now believed that the county should have been paying half of the tax map employees’ costs.

Bernard, asking a hypothetical question, noted that if the auditor prior to Yoder taking office determined it was okay for the office to pay those employee costs using the REA funds, why should the county reimburse her office for those years?

“It is not my budget,” Yoder said. “It is the office’s fund.”

Bill Danso, a Trumbull County prosecutor working with the county, noted that in 2019 the attorney general ruled that the tax map employees should not have been paid with REA funds.

Danso noted that in 2024, the state auditor sent a management letter to the county stating this issue must be addressed. He noted, however, that the 2024 management letter from the state auditor’s office that suggested repayment did not order the reimbursement.

Alexandra DeVengencie-Bush, the county’s human resources director, said the 2024 document the county received from the state auditor’s office was not a finding of recovery.

“The management letter did call this out and did suggest, potentially, some sort of payment,” she said. “However, it was not explicit. It did not say you’re mandated.”

Hernandez noted the county needs more information on whether the county is obligated to make a repayment.

Bernard said the tax map office should never have been in the auditor’s office.

“There is a lot of wrong here,” Bernard said. “Now, we are being asked to pay for it.”

Bernard questioned Yoder if she would say this was a mistake that was made prior to her taking office and she would not require the county to pay her REA fund back.

“I won’t say that,” she responded. “We’re going to have to do mass reappraisals, which is a $2.1 million process. It is necessary to do that to do the reappraisals.”

Yoder said she has a healthy carryover balance in her accounts, but not enough to pay for the mass reappraisals.

“If you did not have the funds to pay for them, what would you do?” Bernard questioned.

“The ORC would demand that you pay for it (the reappraisals),” she responded. “I will need all of this money to do the reappraisals.”

Hernandez noted the commissioners still have their mid-year budget review.

“This is not part of my budget,” Yoder interjected. “This is a payback for past years.”