In February, Chairman John Mills and the Majority Caucus of the Erie County Legislature requested Comptroller Stefan Mychajliw to do an audit of legislature expenses over the past five-years, the final audit report has been received and highlights spending practices of former Legislature chairs. In the Legislature, the Chairperson has sole control over expenditures, and all request for spending must be approved by the Chairperson. The Majority caucus, under the new leadership of Chairman John Mills and Majority Leader Joseph Lorigo, have committed to making the necessary changes to improve operations based on the audit’s findings.

Included in the Comptroller’s audit report are findings of misuse of taxpayer dollars and recommendations to address several concerns, many of these recommendations have already been acted on by Chairman Mills.

“I want to thank Comptroller Mychajliw and his auditing team for fully reviewing the Legislature and our budget to determine where we can improve efficiencies and highlight past errors so we don’t continue to make the same mistakes. With the new majority leading the Legislature, I thought it was essential that we fully understood what had been happening for several years under Democratic leadership,” said Chairman Mills. “We have already taken steps to make changes and correct some errors of the past. Going forward, the Legislature will operate much more efficiently than it had been.”

Please CLICK HERE to review the audit. 

“The Legislature’s new Majority Caucus is leading by example by taking a look at our own budget and operations. A number of the recommendations have already been addressed by our caucus, and we will continue to look for efficiency to save taxpayer dollars,” said Legislator Kevin Hardwick.