County Auditor Craig Snodgrass told cleveland.com the move is a direct response to a reduction in his office’s general fund allocation from about $1.4 million in 2025 to $800,000 in 2026 — a cut he sees as retaliation for refusing to abide by what he classifies as illegal requests from the county.
County Commissioner David Moore said Lorain County voters rejected a sales tax increase in November 2024. Now, the county is short $11 million, forcing budget scrutiny and cuts across county government.
Moore said the commissioners cut the auditor’s budget after Snodgrass refused to join the countywide cybersecurity program and was unwilling to contribute $1 million from the auditor’s real estate assessment (REA) fund to help mitigate the cybersecurity costs.
“I thought, ‘OK, if you’re not going to pitch in a million from that $12 million you got over there, then we’ll just cut your budget by $950,000,’” Moore said in an interview with cleveland.com.
County officials have said consolidating cybersecurity improves coordination and reduces risk. Moore said Snodgrass is the last of 16 elected county officials to resist joining the program. He called Snodgrass’ response “hostile” and suggested he should resign if he cannot do the job.
“This is self-inflicted pain,” Moore said. “He can fix it. He chose not to. There is a resolution for this and that is to join our team with the rest of the county and come under our umbrella and help pay for it.”
Snodgrass, however, likened the move to extortion and countered that state law severely restricts how REA dollars can be used. He said the funds are earmarked for specific property valuation and appraisal work and cannot be redirected to the general fund. He said transferring REA funds to cover countywide cybersecurity costs would be illegal and akin to “money laundering.”
Data control concerns
Beyond the legal question, Snodgrass said his primary concern is maintaining the independence of his office and the legality of centralizing that much information. He referred to an incident years ago in which an IT employee stole an auditor’s server without authorization, prompting state-level scrutiny.
“By law, the auditor is the chief fiscal officer,” he said. “If they control the network, they control the data, and that’s the keys to the kingdom. It brings up a lot of concerns about the segregation of duties, the independence of office and the checks and balances of government.”
Snodgrass also disputed the claim that joining the countywide system would save money. He said his office is already covered under the county’s CORSA premium, which includes cyber liability coverage. He pays only nominal costs for internal cybersecurity licenses, training and system maintenance.
Services will suffer, auditor warns
The Friday closures reduce staff hours from 40 to 32 per week. Snodgrass said the change was made to avoid layoffs, which he said would have caused even greater disruptions to service.
As a result, residents should expect slower turnaround times for property transfers, delayed bill processing and audits, and longer waits for public records requests. Snodgrass said some functions may be eliminated entirely.
Among the most significant impacts, he said, is the inability to complete the county’s annual comprehensive financial report this year — a failure that could harm bond ratings and increase borrowing costs. He also warned that certain federal funding streams could be jeopardized if compliance deadlines tied to mandated reporting are missed. Lorain County spent about $74 million in federal funds in 2025.
“There are a lot of mandated duties that I may not be able to comply with,” Snodgrass said, adding that he has been working with the county prosecutor’s office to navigate local, state and federal legal obligations the office may be unable to meet.
The human toll
The budget cuts have taken an emotional toll on employees facing reduced pay.
“I obviously had a lot of people in tears, asking ‘How do I pay my bills?’ ‘How do I pay my mortgage?’” Snodgrass said.
Staff members will remain eligible for health insurance, but the reduction from 40 to 32 hours means smaller paychecks. Snodgrass said he worked with the county’s human resources department, labor representatives and the prosecutor’s office to ensure employees are covered.
The move is part of a broader effort to stay within the reduced budget while avoiding layoffs—something he is determined to prevent after experiencing workforce reductions during the 2007-2009 recession.
“I said to myself, ‘I never want to do that again.’ I know what it did to the lives of those people,” Snodgrass said. “My dad used to work at the steel mill, and he went through it. I knew what it was growing up in a household like that.”
The four-day work week may not be the final step needed to balance the budget. Snodgrass described it as “probably plan D or F by now” and said additional measures may still be required.
“I just ask for the public’s patience,” Snodgrass said. “We’re going to try to do the best we can, given the resources we have…. and see what tomorrow brings.”
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