SKOWHEGAN -- Somerset County commissioners are assembling a finance team to handle a $15 million operation.

And if it means reducing the responsibilities of an elected county treasurer to do it, that's part of doing good business, Commission Chairman Philip Roy Jr. said during a special board meeting Wednesday night.

In fact, Roy said, that change is almost essential to a well-run county operation, and it is what eight other counties already have done -- leaving the county treasurer as a figurehead.

"The county budget four years ago was $5.7 million. It is $15 million now," Roy said. The county has to put together a professional finance department to handle that load, he said. He said the positions are already in the budget and will cost no more money to fund.

Over the last year, Roy has been at work, with two other commissioners in support, upgrading the clerk's position to that of county administrator, adding a finance officer and a deputy county administrator-human resource director who was only recently hired. Now, they want to add an accounts payable specialist.

They had offered the task to Somerset County Treasurer Tracey H. Rotondi, not as part of her treasurer's work, but as a county employee under the supervision of Finance Officer Earla Haggerty.

Rotondi, who attended the meeting Wednesday night to defend the rights of her elected position, argued that she has been doing the accounts payable work since she was elected more than a year ago and that she could continue to do so in her current position.

She said that as an official elected by the people, she has the right to establish her own hours. By taking on the task of accounts payable as a county function, that right would be removed, she said.

"I take a day off now if I want and not have to worry about it. Where does that fall?" she asked.

Also, "What happens with my contract?" Rotondi asked of the pay she receives, which ranges from $17,600 in 2007 to $18,100 in 2010, her last year in office.

The commission's attorney, Warren Shay, said Rotondi's signed contract with commissioners and her statutory obligations left no room for doubt.

"It is clear (Rotondi) is responsible for all the money in the county; that is part of her job. She is answerable to no one."

Roy and Commissioner Lynda Quinn said that as long as the accounts payable work is being done, there should be no problem, but it must be a county function.

Roy said her work doing accounts payable would have to be under the supervision and control of Haggerty because she would ultimately be responsible.

Rotondi eventually agreed to the stipulations, which will add a stipend of about $2,000 to her pay.

Roy said he foresees a time when the treasurer's job will be that of a figurehead who signs checks and keeps a check on some finance work for about $5,000 a year.

Haggerty had earlier presented county budget committee members with an outline of the new financial team and how it will work.

She also presented them with a renovation plan for a set of offices in the basement of the Somerset County Courthouse, once the Somerset Sheriff's Department moves to the new county jail in East Madison.

Roy introduced Shannon Bosdell as the newly-hired deputy county administrator-human resource director.

Later, Roy said it was time the county operated like a business: "If you start to expand and you don't strengthen your finance department and have a financial accounting, you will fail."

Darla L. Pickett -- 474-9534, Ext. 341

dpickett@centralmaine.com