Miller was the county CFO starting in January 2004, when County Executive Brian Hughes began his first term. He wasplaced on unpaid leave last August once problems were uncovered. He was subsequently terminated. The Trentonian reported at the time that law firm Genova Burns was contacted to conduct an investigation into his credentials.
County spokeswoman Julie Willmot said in a statement that the findings of their investigation led to a referral to “the appropriate law enforcement agencies.”
“We are fully cooperating fully with those agencies and have been for months since the Administration first uncovered the problems with its CFO in August 2022,” she said.
The county questioned the comptroller’s office issuing its own report “knowing that the matter is safely in the hands of law enforcement and that the Administration conducted its own prompt investigation and self-reported its outcome to law enforcement.”
Willmot added that while the report admonishes the Hughes administration for poor oversight of Miller and the finance department, “does not dispute that the Administration and the County are themselves victims of Mr. Miller’s failure to maintain the proper credentials and licenses for his job.”
“There is [also] no claim in the [comptroller’s] report that the county and its administration had any knowledge of these infirmities before its own investigation revealed them for the first time,” she said.
The comptroller’s office made six recommendations to the county finance department. Among them: adopt an organization chart, develop an accounting procedures manual, and provide more oversight of the department and the county CFO.
Those recommendations are in addition to filing and paying federal and state taxes on time and making sure their employees have the required job certifications.