Sequoyah County Commissioners filed a protest against the county budget Monday with the Sequoyah County Excise Board alleging that the budget the commissioners signed was completely changed by the excise board before it was sent to the state auditor's office.

Monday was the final day to file the protest against the county budget, which was approved by the excise board and filed with the state auditor and inspector on Nov. 14, according to the protest. The commissioners are now demanding a public hearing.

The protest alleges that the county budget prepared by the excise board is "wholly and totally contrary to law and fails to fund certain agencies and departments as required by law. This would include failure to properly fund the county jail and arbitrarily adjusting the estimate of needs of the other departments."

Young said the law states that they have to fund in the perimeters of the law and they have to fund the jail authority, and he says there will probably be litigation over that issue.

When the excise board reviewed the county budget that the commissioners submitted last month, the excise board changed the budget by cutting out $214,000 in funding for the new county jail, restoring funding to the sheriff's department, and reducing money to the county 911 system. The excise board said the jail would be operated from an operating and maintenance fund which was generated by one-third of a half-cent sales tax approved by voters, along with revenue generated from the jail's phone system and commissary.

Nathan Young III, a Tahlequah attorney who represents the commissioners, said the signatures of the county commissioners on the budget submitted to the state auditor were attached to a budget that the commissioners did not approve.

The county commissioners signed the budget that they approved and then the excise board changed it and approved it. Then what the commissioners signed was attached to what the excise board approved and sent to the state auditor, Young said. He said the commissioners believed what they were signing was what they approved.

"It was the old switcheroo," Young said.

Young said the county commissioners actually received their first copy of the budget that was sent to the state auditor on Monday.

"This is fraud and alteration of documents," Young said. "It's a felony."

Young said they are turning over the information to the Oklahoma Bureau of Investigation (OSBI).

For a complete news report, see the Dec. 4 edition of Your TIMES.