there's a growing Rift between countyy leaders and a watchdog group that holds them accountable the association representing New Jersey's 21 counties this week sent a letter to lawmakers urging them to investigate the Office of the State comproller after the office issued recent reports that exposed waste and misconduct in Three Counties as senior correspondent Brenda Flanigan reports the request comes as the legislature is already facing scrutiny for attempts at scaling back transparency [Music] the control here is is acting as judge prosecutor and and jury all all in one John denardio lobbies for Jersey's 21 County governments who he claims have quote had it with New Jersey acting State comproller Kevin Walsh the counties want lawmakers to put a short leash on the independent Watchdog they really dislike his YouTube clips did you know the Office of the State comproller Audits and investigates New Jersey's local governments and when we do we often find staggering waste a big reason why the Chief Financial Officer is not doing their job I think their their reports and their press releases are dis disingenuous representation of the facts and circumstances Walsh recently issued several damning reports pointing out alleged fraud and misuse of taxpayer dollars in Union Hudson and Essex counties but they vigorously disputed some of the com controller's findings in a letter to legislative Le leaders donadio claimed Walsh attempts to evoke fear in the minds of viewers that fraud waste and abuse is everywhere and that public Financial officers are primarily responsible he asks lawmakers to investigate the investigator and mandate guard rail so counties can fully rebut accusations we'd like for the legislature to conduct a hearing on the Office of the State Controller we are alarmed uh at the fact that the controller has the authority to Levy accusations of wrongdoing when there are disputes of facts and legal matters um without due process of the law if the legislature has any questions about any of the reports that we've issued including the ones uh that the counties are now upset about we welcome the chance to fully engage on that I fully stand behind the facts that are in there um and the conclusions that we reached Walsh freely acknowledges local governments often get it right but adds it's not his job to award gold stars we share the facts because it's good for democracy for the public to understand um where government has fallen down they have the power to investigate and they do it well and they have an incredibly wonderful track record of identifying corruption and misuse of public funds government transparency Advocates say the comproller doesn't prosecute he just reports they see this as push back by County politicians eager to bite the watch dog back but they warn Grassroots New Jersey just dumped the county line ballot and polls show folks also oppose measures to roll back the open public records act they urged read the room certainly if the legislature does pick up that recommendation they will get Massive Resistance from this movement this democ Pro democracy movement it will be massive Senate President Nick scari told us I can confirm receipt of the letter and we will give it a full review he's also the sole sponsor of s227 a bill that would create a governor appointed Chief accountability officer basically a Watchdog Watchdog to supervise All State Ombudsman and com trollers that could elicit some hows of protest I'm Brenda Flanigan NJ Spotlight news [Music]