ONTARIO COUNTY, N.Y. — A former Ontario County clerk embezzled nearly half a million dollars while in office, according to a new audit released. Legal experts involved say there’s no way the money can be recovered.

Matthew Hoose died suddenly on the day he was scheduled to meet with auditors.

Ontario County Administrator Chris DeBolt says starting in July 2022, the county noticed delayed payments from Hoose’s office. The Department of State reached out about it.

DeBolt says he tried to intervene and offer assistance to Hoose a number of times, but Hoose didn’t fully cooperate and a third party had to get involved. While there was sporadic progress in these payments getting filed in time, it wasn’t consistent.

“As an independently elected county official Mr. Hoose had a tremendous amount of authority to act independently. He rejected offers of assistance or suggestion on internal policies and procedures made by county officials and had as an elected official the authority to do so,” DeBolt said. 

DeBolt added: “I can’t opine on potential motives — this is a tragedy all around and does it keep me up at night, absolutely.”

The county Board of Supervisors adopted a vote of no confidence in Hoose.

DeBolt says they’ve been working with the auditors from the Bonadio Group to implement more oversight. Some changes include using a locked bag to transport and deposit funds to the bank, hiring someone to conduct a daily reconciliation process of each day’s deposit, and obtaining a receipt once deposited for the person performing reconciliation.

The full list of changes can be found in the audit. The audit can be viewed here.

News10NBC’s Eriketa Cost spoke to some taxpayers about this. There’s been a loss in trust and no one wants to see an elected official accused of doing something like this.

“This is fascinating to me, that when people start out so honestly, somehow, somewhere along the way, either they changed their mind or people change their mind… That’s the unfortunate part, that they can’t stay honest,” said Jack Frost, an Ontario County resident.

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