Lake County Report Finds Poor Oversight, Low Morale and Years of Financial Errors

A recent internal report paints a stark picture of how Lake County operates, citing loosely enforced attendance policies and a leadership culture rooted in control and fear. The report says those conditions have created “a very unreliable workforce” and allowed serious financial failures to persist for years.

The Lake County Organizational Needs Report, prepared by former County Comptroller Dan Ciecierski at the request of Lake County Councilman Randy Niemeyer, examined problems across county government, including payroll, record-keeping, and how managers lead their staff. Rather than blaming technology, the report points to a lack of experience and a work culture that allows basic rules to be ignored.

“The net result is low morale, stifled innovation, and lack of engagement across the whole organization,” the report states.

According to the report, attendance policies across county government have allowed “poor quality employees to choose when they feel like coming to work,” a practice that “punish[es] good quality employees who get saddled with extra work on days when poor workers decide not to come in.” As an example, the report cited a county employee who was approved for 17 unpaid absence days in 2024 after exhausting all paid time off.

Beyond staffing and policy failures, the report says the county’s leadership culture has made those problems worse by discouraging employees from raising concerns or challenging decisions.

“The County is currently employing a legacy leadership style that relies heavily on control, fear, and hierarchical authority,” the report states. Operating under that approach has led to “poor performance, poor accountability, and low progress,” according to the report.

Lake County government employs roughly 2,600 people. Employees are described in the report as being reluctant to speak up, hesitant to take initiative, and afraid to make mistakes or participate in decision-making.

The report’s findings build on documented financial and management challenges in Lake County, including multiyear payroll errors and problems tied to the county’s implementation of a new accounting system without sufficient internal expertise. While individual issues surfaced at different points, the report frames them as symptoms of deeper organizational and leadership problems that were never fully addressed.

In fact, in 2023, the Indiana State Board of Accounts designated Lake County as an unauditable entity, concluding that auditors could not rely on the county’s financial records because required controls were not in place.

Payroll operations illustrate the depth of the problem, according to the report. While employee paychecks were issued correctly, payroll transactions were recorded incorrectly in the county’s general ledger during every pay cycle for nearly three years. The errors went undetected because no one with the appropriate expertise was positioned to identify or correct them, according to the report.

The designation stemmed from failures in the Auditor’s and Treasurer’s offices to properly maintain accounts, records, and required financial reports. As a result, Lake County lost its bond rating, limiting its ability to borrow for essential services and long-term public projects.

The report also examined the county’s troubled rollout of Oracle, the accounting system meant to replace its older software.

The report says officials and their consultant tried to make the new system work like the old one, rather than changing county practices to match it. The consultant lacked the staff and experience needed to manage the system, leaving Oracle improperly set up from the start and increasing the risk of errors in the county’s financial records.

Niemeyer, the Lake County councilman, said he initiated a deeper review of county finances by tasking Ciecierski, the then-county comptroller, with examining how money was being managed.

Taken together, the report describes interconnected failures driven by leadership culture, insufficient expertise, and a tolerance for bypassing basic controls — problems it says have weakened the county’s ability to ensure compliance, maintain transparency, and effectively serve residents.

While Niemeyer sees the audit’s results as an opportunity to fix the system so that it works better for county residents, he acknowledged many of the cultural issues addressed cannot be simply legislated out.

“The political nature of things aren’t really things that you can necessarily tackle from the position of a council person, because the nature of politics is what it is,” Niemeyer told Capital B Gary.

“But the payroll issues, creating better internal controls, the utilization of the licenses that we own in Lake County, Oracle hiring practices to get people that have certain credentials that can implement those different facets of Oracle, can all help correct a lot of the systemic issues,” he said.

Niemeyer said the council can influence some degree of change through the interaction it has with the departments as it relates to the funding of positions and the functional financial makeup of each department to create better priorities.

Council President Christine Cid believes recent actions, including new employees and contractors, are a step in the right direction.

“We definitely have improved. Anytime you get a new system, it takes a while to get familiar with it, but I think we’re getting a pretty good hold on that,” Cid told Capital B Gary.

Council members were split on how they believe the issues highlighted in the report currently affect residents.

“I don’t know that it really affects the everyday services that they receive. They’re still receiving those services, if [there is] anything, we need to find out what those issues are, and they’ll be addressed,” Cid said.

Niemeyer said the current processes can function as a quiet tax on residents, with financial consequences that could be avoided through modernization.

“Our residents pay a one and a half percent income tax, and if we start operating like a modern, efficient county government, we could see that income tax reduced, so yeah, it has a direct impact on residents and how we manage the services of county government,” Niemeyer said.

County officials said the report will now factor into upcoming budget discussions, where funding decisions could be used to address staffing gaps, training needs, and internal controls highlighted in the assessment. Niemeyer said the council’s primary leverage lies in how it funds departments and prioritizes positions tied to financial oversight, rather than in direct authority over daily operations.

It remains unclear which of the report’s recommendations will be adopted or how progress will be measured. Chief among those recommendations was acknowledging the culture, investing in leadership development, and acting on employee feedback. Several council members said continued coordination with independently elected offices will be necessary to translate the report’s findings into lasting change.

Primaries for multiple Lake County offices, including assessor, sheriff, clerk, and treasurer, will take place this May.

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