Voters in York County could decide in November to get rid of a part-time elected treasurer position that officials have said serves little purpose in its current form.

If voters approve the referendum question this fall, the treasurer would instead be appointed by county officials.

It’s an issue that has county officials at odds over the duties of the treasurer and the consequences of potentially abolishing the position. A majority of county commissioners say it’s an unnecessary extension of the county Finance Department, while the former treasurer said keeping the position could save taxpayers some money.

But the current treasurer — who is not seeking to keep the job, no matter how residents vote Nov. 3 — thinks it’s a way for elected officials to gain control and remove a layer of public oversight.

The state statute governing the elected treasurer position doesn’t outline specific finance background requirements, but York County Commission Chair Richard Dutremble and County Manager Gregory Zinser say making it an appointed position would be a way to professionalize the budget process by establishing finance qualifications.

“Basically, the treasurer’s position now in county government is obsolete,” Dutremble said.

The responsibilities of the elected treasurer, Dutremble said, lost value once the county established a finance director and a Finance Department, which make decisions on investments, operating budgets and debts.

The finance director position was created in early 2007 after untimely audits and accounting errors led to a $1.2 million fund balance deficit. Since then, the county’s financial status has steadily improved. It gets audited three times a year — once for finances, and once each for state and federal compliance. The auditing firm used by York County has given the county an “A” rating.

The county’s current treasurer, Stacy Kilroy, whose term expires on Dec. 31, isn’t running again. She was appointed to serve out the term in 2024 by Gov. Janet Mills after previous treasurer and former Biddeford City Councilor Bobby Mills stepped down. (The two Millses are not related.)

Kilroy argued this week that finance and treasury are two “completely different subjects.”

“The intent of the treasurer’s position was, of course, to record finance, but also to be in the idea of town rule,” Kilroy said, adding that the four-person finance team isn’t composed of elected officials. To her, they’re responsible only to the county manager “and their pension.”

But Dutremble and Zinser described the position as “ceremonial” and said the budget goes through three approvals: first the county manager, then the county commissioners and finally the county’s budget committee.

“It’s just a formality so they can sign papers and stuff like that,” Dutremble said of the treasurer position, noting that state law requires counties to have a treasurer, regardless of how they’re chosen.

The treasurer is given a $500 annual stipend for the part-time role, Commissioner Justin Chenette said, and a potential difference in pay for an appointed treasurer is yet to be determined. But he thinks the commissioners could hesitate to allocate more money to the role because, ideally, they’d appoint someone who is already doing budget work for the county. Dutremble said he’d propose no increase to that stipend.

Bobby Mills, who is seeking to return to the treasurer position, said he’s running to save taxpayers money. Getting rid of the $500 stipend wouldn’t save the county any money when it already has a deputy treasurer, a full-time finance department position that he said pays almost $100,000 a year.

“Saving $500 is, like, ludicrous,” he said. “It’s not about money. It’s about serving the people.”

He says he would instead propose getting rid of the full-time deputy position and performing those duties under the $500 stipend — something he tried to do when he was first elected in 2018.

This isn’t the first time York County has considered abolishing the elected position. In 2018, commissioners approved the same ballot question, which asks, “Shall the position of elected county treasurer be abolished and replaced with a treasurer appointed by the county commissioners?”

But it failed by a wide margin when it was brought to voters, 70% of whom voted “no.”

Dutremble thinks officials made a mistake back then by not properly explaining the duties of the treasurer and why the position should be abolished.

“I think the knowledge surrounding that of the statutory role is rather unknown,” he said. “The existing treasurer isn’t even on the bank accounts and hasn’t been in quite some time.”

York is one of three Maine counties considering this change this fall; voters in Franklin and Washington counties will see similar questions on their ballots. Three other counties — Androscoggin, Cumberland and Knox — already appoint their treasurers.

State law generally requires treasurers to be an elected county resident, but there’s an exception that allows county commissioners to abolish the elected position and replace it with an appointed role, so long as voters approve such a change.

Four of the five York County commissioners have said they support the change.

Chenette, the sole commissioner opposed, said it’s not something residents are asking for. To him, abolishing the elected position would mean losing public agency and oversight into the budget process.

“I’m unclear what has changed between the last referendum and this fall to warrant more taxpayer money going towards a referendum that no one asked for,” Chenette said. “Instead, we really need to be looking at ways of making the county treasurer role more effective in the community.”

He’d rather see the position reformed, with an elected treasurer who involves the public more directly in the process.

Kilroy said the budget process is a lot less complicated than officials are making it seem.

“The county budget could be done on a cocktail napkin,” she said. “This is just a way for the county manager to gain control of a position so that nobody is looking at the various county commissioners.”

Zinser disagrees, because the treasurer plays no statutory role in the budget process. No matter what, final budget approval will still have to go through the budget committee, which remains an elected body.

Mills is seeking a nonconsecutive term as treasurer and will be the sole candidate listed for the position on the Nov. 3 ballot. But if the referendum to abolish the elected treasurer’s role is approved, then one will be appointed internally and that vote won’t matter.

Editor’s note: This story was updated on Oct. 1 to clarify Bobby Mills’ stance about eliminating the elected treasurer position.