WARREN — Trumbull County Auditor Martha Yoder is seeking to recover $1,192,359 that her office’s real estate assessment fund paid to half of the employees working in the county’s tax map program since 2019.

Yoder, during the commissioners’ weekly workshop, sought to get clarification from Commissioners Rick Hernandez and Tony Bernard on whether and/or how the county would reimburse her office. Commissioner Denny Malloy did not attend Tuesday’s workshop.

The commissioners would not provide a definitive answer on their position because they are not clear whether they are required to refund the money and, if required, whether the amount being sought from Yoder is what is owed. They also asked whether the amount — whatever it is — could be repaid in installments.

The issue stems from a 2019 ruling by the state attorney general’s office that the tax map office and its employees should have been in the engineer’s office. For several years prior to the 2019 ruling, the tax map office had been in the auditor’s office.

The office and its employees still reside in the auditor’s office.

Yoder and Trumbull County Engineer David DeChristofaro have been arguing where it should be located.

The tax map office reviews and approves surveys done by professional surveyors that indicate boundary lines for the county, reviews property descriptions and does custom mapping, deed transfers and approvals. The GIS program that is used to do the mapping belongs to the auditor’s office.

Tax map employees were assigned to the auditor’s office prior to Yoder taking office in 2023. Yoder noted that she attempted to get clarification.

A tentative proposal previously was agreed upon that would transfer two auditor’s office employees to the engineer’s office.

The employees in the tax map office were entirely paid through the auditor’s REA fund.

In 2019, when the state auditor made his initial ruling, the number of tax map employees was five. Now, there are four tax map employees.

Yoder told the commissioners to calculate the amount that should be reimbursed by the total compensation the employees were paid, including salary, health benefits, etc.

However, based on the interpretation of the AG’s ruling, it is now believed that the county should have been paying half of the tax map employees’ costs.

Bernard, asking a hypothetical question, noted that if the auditor prior to Yoder taking office determined it was okay for the office to pay those employee costs using the REA funds, why should the county reimburse her office for those years?

“It is not my budget,” Yoder said. “It is the office’s fund.”

Bill Danso, a Trumbull County prosecutor working with the county, noted that in 2019 the attorney general ruled that the tax map employees should not have been paid with REA funds.