Elected Officials information.

Each Ohio county organized under the general statutory law has eleven elected officials consisting of three county commissioners and an auditor, treasurer, prosecuting attorney, clerk of courts of common pleas, engineer, coroner, recorder and sheriff. There is no chief executive officer; each elected official possesses some executive authority.

AUDITOR

The county auditor is the only elected official, aside from the one commissioner, that is elected in the gubernatorial election year. All other county elected officials are elected in the presidential election year. If the commissioners do not appoint a clerk, the auditor is, by statute, the clerk of the board of county commissioners.

The auditor is the chief fiscal officer of the county. As the county's chief fiscal officer, the auditor has the responsibility to keep the official record of all county government receipts and disbursements. The auditor is a very important office from the perspective of county commissioners because it is the responsibility of the office to certify to the commissioners an estimate of available revenue that they may appropriate for county agencies and departments. When the county makes a purchase
or enters into a contract, the auditor must certify that funds are available or in the process of collection from the appropriate account. This assures that no agency spends more than the commissioners appropriate for various purposes. In addition, the auditor issues warrants to pay county
bills, and serves as the "paymaster" for all county employees. The auditor prepares a detailed annual report of all revenue and expenditures by fund
under rules of the state auditor.

Another major responsibility of the auditor relates to the administration of Ohio's property tax law. As the appraiser of real property, the auditor must assure that every parcel of land and buildings and improvements are fairly and uniformly appraised and then assessed for tax purposes. The auditor directs a general reappraisal of real property every six years with an update being performed during the third year after the reappraisal.

In administering Ohio's real property tax law, the auditor must maintain accurate records of realproperty including the transfer of deeds, new
construction, new parcels and lot splits, oil and gas wells, homestead exemptions, and special assessments.

Every year the auditor prepares an abstract of real property, an abstract of property exempt from taxation, an abstract of current agricultural use
(CAUV) property, an abstract of tax rates, and the general tax list and duplicate. After taxes are collected by the county treasurer, the auditor
distributes taxes and special assessments to various political subdivisions and county agencies or boards. The auditor also certifies a list and
duplicate of delinquent taxes and must publish the list. The treasurer then pursues these delinquencies.

The auditor also has a variety of other significant responsibilities including:

a. To distribute funds to various political
subdivisions. This includes distributions
of motor vehicle license taxes, gasoline
taxes, estate taxes, fines, personal
property taxes, and state local
government fund monies to counties,
townships, municipalities, libraries and
certain park districts,

b. To serve as an agent for the state Tax
Commissioner for administering Ohio's
tangible personal property tax law.

c. To administer Ohio's manufactured home
law by assessing manufactured homes,
preparing a tax duplicate, and
distributing manufactured home taxes in
the same manner as real property taxes.

d. To serve as an agent for the state Tax
Commissioner to process estate tax
returns of decedents who had residence
in the county, including the inventory of
safe deposit boxes. The auditor then
distributes monies collected from the
estate tax to the state and township or
municipality of the decedent.

e. To serve as the sealer of weights and
measures by inspecting such devices as
scales and gas pumps to protect the
consuming public,

f. To issue various licenses including
licenses for dogs and kennels, vendors
licenses, and cigarette licenses.

Finally, the auditor serves critical functions on certain county boards and commissions. The auditor is the secretary of both the county budget
commission and the board of revision, and is the chief administrator of the automatic data processing board if the county commissioners have established one.