Oconee Finance Office Will Be More Careful with Open Records, Director Says

Oconee County Finance Director Jeff Benko says his office will be more careful when complying with the Open Records Act  after some sensitive financial information was discovered amongst 600 pages of Sheriff's Office spending records that were requested.

"Anytime you're dealing with that much paper, error can occur," he said.

"I think, more or less, it's an election campaign issue as opposed to really any potential risk to the county or for any individual."

Trey Downs, candidate for Sheriff, said Thursday he on his campaign website and Facebook pages when he  posted the spending records.  He had wanted the public to review the transactions on the statements so voters could decide for themselves if purchases made by the current administration were fiscally responsible, he said.

Receipts containing at least one complete county bank account number, along with a couple of local businesses' bank account numbers and partial social security numbers of some Sheriff's Office employees were found in the statements, Sheriff Scott Berry said.

Downs said he immediately removed the documents when he learned they contained the sensitive information, which he said should have been redacted by the Finance Office before it was released to him.

Berry said the action put the county at risk of identity fraud. But Benko said the risk was minimal.

"Even with the whole credit card you got to have, in fact, things like the pin number, security number on the back -- none of that was available, so there's not really any risk," he said. "But to remove all doubt, I just went ahead and canceled the cards and had new ones issued."

Benko talked to Oconee State Bank, cancelled the credit cards, reviewed the activity and found nothing suspicious. New credit cards are already being issued and should arrive within three or four days, he said.

"I'm confident that the county was protected through the actions of canceling the cards and getting them re-issued," he said. "I think, more or less, it's an election campaign issue as opposed to really any potential risk to the county or for any individual," he said. "There was no [ill] intent by any side, I believe," he added.

Benko said this case is unique.

"We've done over 15 [Open Records Act] requests for [Downs] alone this year.  We've probably done a couple hundred [for other petitioners] since I've been the chief financial officer.  Never, ever has this issue come up," Benko said. "Because most of the time people are just going to come in here, inspect them, look at them, see if it makes sense or not and then move on. This is the first case where I've seen one where they put it online."

Also, usually an Open Records Act request received by the Finance Office is for only a page or two, he said.

"This is the first time in which three or four together total about 600 pages, and you can just imagine that report was several inches thick and copy after copy after copy," he explained. "When I reviewed it, I didn't see anything in there inappropriate, but, again, I looked through 600 pages pretty quickly."

Now, he said, he'll personally scrutinize each page before any information is released through such requests.

"To ensure this never happens again, even in the most remote case, I will review each and every page," he said. "I think the employee in my office that did it was just doing their job and I'm not going to hammer them for it, that's just ridiculous.  There was no [ill] intent."

Benko said he's instructed his staff to inform petitioners of Open Records Act requests that it may take additional time for the office to comply with the requests.

"I hate to say that, but that's probably the most prudent way to deal with it," he said. "As far as I'm concerned, I'm going to protect the county and protect our interests in whatever steps I have to do."

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