March 12, 2025
Steuben County Sheriff Jim Allard posted a Facebook statement yesterday, saying that County Legislator Scott Van Etten and County Manager Jack Wheeler were singling out the sheriff’s office, asking for details about overtime pay for sheriff’s department employees. In the sheriff’s statement, he listed other county departments and their amounts of overtime pay. The sheriff also said that the other county departments are not questioned extensively about overtime. “To my knowledge, no other department or agency has been singled out for a review of this nature,” Allard stated in his FB post. To my knowledge, no other elected official or department head has been questioned publicly regarding payroll of any kind.”
County Manager Jack Wheeler says the sheriff’s statements are both unfortunate and inaccurate. Wheeler also says it’s standard practice for Legislative committees and the county manager’s office to request details on financial items of all departments. To say no other departments have received such questions is patently false.
Coumty Lawmaker Scott Van Etten said the following:
Unfortunately this is what we’ve come to expect as a response from Sheriff Allard. He can’t seem to grasp the concept that Legislators are elected by the voters / taxpayers of this County to be the financial stewards of the Annual Budget and County operations. Since he’s held that office, I’ve ask him many questions about his Department’s spending, just like I do every other department head. But he takes great offense to that, and actually filed a complaint with the NYS Division of Human Rights 3 years ago (3/12/22) claiming “unlawful discriminatory practice relating to employment because of age.” That suit cost the County $10k for outside counsel to defend and the case was summarily thrown out by the State because he’s an elected Sheriff and has no standing to claim age discrimination under the NYS Human Rights Law. He takes offense to any comment, question, or suggestion regarding his department and its operations. Unfortunately for him, I have a fiduciary responsibility to the County taxpayers, and I will not shirk those responsibilities.
