El Dorado County has a basic public finance problem that every resident should know about.
In 2018, County Auditor-Controller Joe Harn wrote that a $2 million park funding amount connected to CFD 1992-1 Serrano had grown to about $9.45 million. He said this was because the CalTrans Construction Cost Index had increased by 473 percent since 1988.
That number matters. It was not just a casual comment. It helped frame how much public Mello-Roos money could be treated as available for park-related costs.
But now there is a problem.
In response to a Public Records Act request, Harn says he cannot find the calculation behind the 473 percent figure. He says he does not know who made the calculation. He also admits the 473 percent figure appears to be an error.
That should concern every taxpayer in El Dorado County.
This is not complicated. If a public official turns $2 million into $9.45 million, the County should be able to show the math. The spreadsheet should exist. The supporting documents should exist. The legal review should exist. The audit trail should exist.
If none of that can be produced, the public has a right to ask what happened.
This is especially serious because Joe Harn is not a low-level employee. He is the County Auditor-Controller. He has been in charge of El Dorado County’s books for roughly 30 years. He is the County’s main accounting officer.
That means his job is not merely to offer opinions about public money. His job is to account for it correctly. He signs official financial documents, public reports, and representations to auditors in his official capacity. These kinds of certifications are serious. They are often made under penalty of perjury. They affect public funds, bond disclosures, taxpayer obligations, and the credibility of the County’s financial reporting.
When the County’s top accounting official cannot produce the calculation behind a multimillion-dollar public finance claim, that is not a minor paperwork issue. It is a professional accountability issue.
Harn’s conduct should be reviewed by the appropriate oversight and licensing authorities. If financial representations were made based on unsupported or erroneous calculations, the public deserves to know how that happened, who reviewed it, and whether any professional standards were violated.
The warning signs were there from the beginning.
In the original 2018 email, Harn said he prepared the response quickly and without staff review. He also said he was unclear about the intent of the old governing agreements from 1988 and 1989. Then, in 2020, he acknowledged that the amount available for the park was “a legal question of some controversy.”
Those are not small caveats. Those are warnings.
The County was dealing with old agreements, public money, Mello-Roos funds, developer obligations, and millions of dollars. That is exactly the kind of situation where the County should slow down, document everything, and get clear legal review before moving forward.
That raises another obvious question: where was County Counsel David Livingston?
County Counsel is supposed to manage the County’s legal risk. If the Auditor-Controller was relying on disputed math and uncertain legal authority, County Counsel should have made sure the legal basis was clear and documented.
If a written legal analysis exists, the public should see it.
If no such analysis exists, that is also a serious problem.
El Dorado County has had financial warning signs for years. Annual reports have repeatedly flagged concerns in the County’s finances. These issues did not appear out of nowhere. When a county has repeated financial red flags, the public should not be expected to ignore a missing multimillion-dollar calculation as if it were an isolated clerical mistake.
This is why public records matter.
Without public records, government officials can simply say, “Trust us.” With public records, residents can ask a better question: “Show us.”
Show us the math.
Show us the authority.
Show us the legal review.
Show us the audit trail.
Show us why the money was handled properly.
That is not too much to ask. It is the bare minimum.
Taxpayers should not have to become forensic accountants to understand whether County officials can justify multimillion-dollar public finance decisions. If the County used a 473 percent index calculation to help justify a $9.45 million position, then the County should be able to prove where that number came from.
If Joe Harn cannot produce that calculation, and if he now admits the figure appears to be wrong, then he should not continue serving as El Dorado County Auditor-Controller.
Joe Harn should resign immediately.
Residents who want answers should contact Joe directly:
joe.harn@edcgov.us
(530) 621-5487
-Jack Cedar, Placerville