By CRAIG FREILICH

Two Republicans running for St. Lawrence County treasurer in the Sept. 13 primary are campaigning on their experience, one as a certified public accountant and the other as a former deputy treasurer.

Derek VanHouse of Ogdensburg is a CPA with accounting firm Pinto, Mucenski, Hooper, VanHouse and Co. who has been tasked many times in his career to conduct audits for businesses and local governments.

Robert Santamoor of Morley has eight and a half years of experience in county government and is finishing studies for a certificate in governmental financial management and campaigning.

They are vying for the GOP line on the Nov. 8 general election ballot.

Santamoor has successfully petitioned for the Independence Party ballot line, so win or lose in the primary, he will have a spot on the ballot.

Santamoor was terminated by former St. Lawrence County Treasurer Kevin Felt after serving more than four years as his deputy. Santamoor cited “philosophical” issues as the reason for his departure.

The Democrat in the race, Renee Cole, is now a deputy treasurer for the county, managing the office since former treasurer Kevin Felt left for a new job out of state. The next elected treasurer will be filling out the rest of Felt’s term.

The person who will sit at the treasurer’s desk will be challenged by an undersized fund balance, sales tax revenues that have not met expectations and a county workforce that has been trimmed repeatedly in the last few years.

Robert Santamoor

Santamoor is pointing to his experience working for the county for eight and a half years, four as business and financial manager at the county Department of Public Health and four and a half of them as a county deputy treasurer.

“I would like to play a role in a stronger, more viable government. Based on my experience, I believe we can do this, working with the legislature and the county administrator to fix it,” Santamoor said.

He said he has been able to put his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business administration to work in “30 years in of business management and business financial experience in the public and private sector.”

Santamoor said the main responsibilities of the treasurer are “safeguarding of all the cash and assets owned by the county” and as an advisor to county government. “That’s not as intense as the fiduciary responsibility, but it’s important.”

“The treasurer doesn’t make policy, but that doesn’t mean he can’t make policy.”

He said the treasurer “can and should pay attention to the expenses of each department.” And he should challenge expenses, to ask, “’Are these budget items?’ If not they have to be advised that they can’t be doing that.”

On solving the issue of late state reimbursements to the county, Santamoor said that towns faced the same problem.

“I think it’s a legislative issue. It’s not something one county can do by itself. ‘Don’t hit me with a 2 percent tax cap and force me to borrow money.’ It has to start at the state level.”

He said he would not start making significant changes in the Treasurer’s Office right away.

“I’m not the type of person to walk in and say, ‘all right, guys, we’re doing this now.’ It would be a mistake for me to say I’m going to make changes in the Treasurer’s department.”

He would advocate a strong program to rebuild the county’s fund balance.

“There’s not much of a fund balance; there’s not much in the bank. That’s one of the things I would look at. I would work with the legislators and county administrator to hold ourselves to that. But that’s outside the purview of the treasurer alone.”

One of the things Santamoor said he has been doing since he announced his candidacy in March is to “spend a lot of time at town board meetings to get some sense of what towns are doing, to see if they are having the same issues as the county, such as with state reimbursements. The nice things, by doing that I’ve also been able to meet literally thousands of people. I want people to know that the Treasurer’s Office is not just there to help the county run its business, but also to help towns and villages. I’m the only candidate to do that.”

Derek VanHouse

VanHouse said he believes his 17 years of experience as a CPA qualify him to run the Treasurer’s Office.

“I understand the complexities and difficulties the county faces. In my career I have been working with local governments on audits, pointing out potential mismanagement and ways to prevent it,” VanHouse said. “That’s a skill I can bring to the job.”

He said that “the challenges the county is facing provide me a unique opportunity to bring my skills to that level.”

“When towns, villages, school districts, businesses and other institutions across the North Country have needed an outsider to come in and look at their books to find out what’s happening with their money, they have hired me to provide them with an independent review of their finances and of the performance of the accountants and bookkeepers entrusted with our hard earned tax dollars,” VanHouse said in a campaign letter.

In an interview, he said his emphasis will be on making timely data available to the legislators.

“The first goal is timely, accurate data,” he said.

“I think we need to take a serious look at all the facets of the information process and see what we can do to make things more economical and operating smoothly. When the legislators get timely, accurate information, we can concentrate on getting efficiencies drawn ... to help the legislators combat the issues they face. I can draw on my experience to provide the necessary guidance to get the county through this critical time,” he said.

Among the issues the county and other local governments around the state face is the late payments from Albany for promised aid and reimbursements for expenses. That often forces local governments to borrow money to pay their bills, which is an added expense.

VanHouse says he has heard about this issue at several meetings of the Board of Legislators he has attended.

“There has got to be a way to expedite the process. I know of other counties, cities and towns that are in the same boat – and school districts. They are constantly waiting on money from the state. We need to find a better way. That’s the key.”

He said he “would love to have as many voters as possible understand what my background, experience and credentials are.” He said that if the resumes of all the candidates were placed before the voters, “and there were references, and they could do checks of work experience and compare that with what the job entails, I think there is a disparity there. There’s one candidate that stands out.”

“Being new to campaigning, I’m glad I have a good team behind me, but it’s hard to promote myself when I’m not used to it. I’ll try to let my track record speak for my past,” VanHouse said.