Cardenas addresses supes about her office, seeks support for successors from her staff

Lassen County Treasurer/Tax Collector/Auditor/Controller Nancy Cardenas confirmed her retirement to the Lassen County Board of Supervisors at the board’s Aug. 26 meeting — spending about 90 minutes with an expansive presentation outlining the history of her office and her service, her reasons for deciding to retire before the completion of her elected term, the issues facing the county in the future and urging the board to appoint two members of her staff to assume her responsibilities once she retires at the end of next month.

Before the meeting, Cardenas sent a brief email to Michele Yderraga, the clerk of the board that was presented to the supervisors. It read, “This is my notification of my retirement effective Oct. 31, 2025, and therefore I will be vacating my office.”

According to a statement Cardenas made last month, “I wish to directly address recent events that have prompted my decision. Last week the County Administrative Officer chose to question my staff regarding my health.

“He subsequently contacted me to inform me that, based on his personal assessment of my health, he intended to go to the Board of Supervisors to recommend the appointment of a new auditor/controller and reduce my salary.

“These actions were both inappropriate and disrespectful, not only to me as an elected official, but also to the standards of professionalism and mutual respect that should guide our county government.

“I want to assure the public that my health is, in fact, fine. I remain fully capable of fulfilling my responsibilities, and my decision to retire is not due to any incapacity. Rather, it is based on recent circumstances that have made it clear to me that stepping aside is in the best interest of myself and the office I have held with pride.”

“I am announcing my retirement as of Oct. 31. 2025,” Cardenas said, “and in doing such, I wanted to give an update of where the office has been, where we’re going and where it needs to continue.”

Cardenas’ presentation to the board rested heavily on the 2023-2024 Lassen County Grand Jury’s Audit and Finance Committee’s investigation into the Lassen County Auditor/Controller.

Click here to read the Final Report of the 2023-2024 Lassen County Grand Jury. (The grand jury’s review of the auditor/controller’s office begins on page 25.)

She began with the summary of the grand jury’s audit.

“I think it says a lot about what’s happened in that office, and where we are today,” Cardenas said.

According to the grand jury report, “The office of Lassen County Auditor-Controller has experienced a series of setbacks. First, the transition of Lassen County’s Electronic Payroll system was not handled well upon retirement of the incumbent Auditor-Controller, resulting in incorrect employee paychecks, missed Internal Revenue Service payroll tax payments, and incorrect deductions of the California State Public Employees’ Retirement System.

“Following this, the countywide election of 2023 left the office of Auditor-Controller vacant. This left the office in free-fall and caused impulsive actions by the Lassen County Board of Supervisors in an attempt to right the ship. The board of supervisors attempted, unsuccessfully, to attract a qualified person to appoint to the office. The board of supervisors then acted to combine the Auditor-Controller’s Office with the Treasurer’s Office, which is currently operating effectively. Ms. Cardenas does plan to retire after her term expires in December 2026.

“The board of supervisors also placed the question of combining the two offices and of appointing the (previously elected) Auditor-Controller and Treasurer-Tax Collector as a Finance Director. The plan proved very unpopular with Lassen County voters during this past 2024 election held in March, so the board of supervisors took the voters’ advisory and will mandate the separation of the combined offices in January 2027, after the election in June 2026.

“In Lassen County, the auditor-controller is an independent, nonpartisan elected office established to provide various accounting and property tax administration services to the county government, special districts, schools, and cities. The auditor-controller is also required to conduct an annual external audit of the county and its’ special districts. Like most other California general law counties, Lassen County has combined the office of the Auditor with the office of the County Controller. As such, a California County Auditor-Controller serves as a chief accounting officer of the county.

“The County Treasurer’s Office serves as the depository for all funds belonging to the county, schools, and other special districts within each county. The treasurer receives, deposits, and manages investments for county funds generated from taxes, fees, grants, and bond proceeds. In addition, the treasurer is the principal in the issuance of county debt obligations and contracts that support a variety of construction projects and other county financing needs.

“In Lassen County, as in most California counties, the office of Treasurer is combined with the office of Tax Collector. The Tax Collector’s role is to administer the billing, collection, and reporting of property tax revenues levied annually throughout California for not only the county, but also cities, schools, and special districts. As with the office of Auditor-Controller, the Lassen County Treasurer-Tax Collector is an independent, nonpartisan elected office.

And, “Public office is a public trust; elected officials serve the people.”

“I truly and whole-heartedly believe in that — that elected officials serve the people,” Cardenas said.

Here are some of the suggestions of note in the grand jury’s report Cardenas offered to the board.

Page 27 in the Lassen County Grand Jury Report highlights some of the problems in the office, including the 2020 departure of Auditor/Controller Diana Wemple, who resigned with three years left on her tenure. The board then appointed Julie Morgan.

In June 2022 no one filed to run for the office and the office became vacant in 2023 when Morgan’s appointment expired. Morgan could not be reappointed and chose not to run.

Following the advice of CAO Richard Egan, the board combined the offices of treasurer/tax collector with the auditor/controller and appointed Cardenas to fill those roles through 2026 and increased Cardenas’ salary by $20,000 per year.

The voters soundly rejected an advisory measure combining these offices into a director of finance position.

Page 30 highlights the software issues faced by the department using the new Tyler system. The software proved difficult for the department to use.

“Many processes had to be done by hand,” Cardenas said. “Paychecks became inaccurate, IRS tax payments were made late, CalPERS retirement contributions were late or inaccurate. Late charges reached $80,000, however, they were later negotiated down to $10,200 for CalPERS, and $17,927.50 for the IRS. Classes meant to train employees were unattended by office staff and not enforced.”

She also said the county was currently undergoing an IRS audit regarding W-9 forms.

“If we do not comply with the IRS rules, the penalties can be brutal,” Cardenas said.

She said until human resources completes its portion of the Tyler process, she can’t either.

“We’re kind of stuck,” Cardenas said. “This has to be done for us to be able to move any further.”

Cardenas said in the past she brought eight or nine years of audits to the board to explain the importance of these audits.

“Audits should come forward to the board every year,” Cardenas said. “If you don’t see an audit, there’s a problem. You should be asking. where’s the audit? What’s going on? Why haven’t we received it?”

Cardenas continued, “I know we’ve been talking a lot about mental health funding and that the state is coming back and asking us to prove that some of the funding that mental health got was spent correctly. We also know that we lost our legacy system, that held all those reports. I’m just saying, had this come back to us in 2020, we still had that system up and running.”

Cardenas said she couldn’t close out the current year, and she wanted the board to understand why. She also said being behind in audits puts the county at risk of losing federal funds.

“We know that, but we also can’t close an audit with an outside auditor until we give them all the documentation they’re requesting,” Cardenas said. “If I can’t give them what they want, they’re not going to close out the audit.”

Cardenas said the auditor’s office reached its goal of using the Tyler system by July 1, 2024, except for the HR module. We were on track to make this the county’s software.”

She also pointed out once the legacy system failed, it was impossible to retrieve the information it contained — including the last audit — making future audits extremely difficult.

“We all knew that was a huge risk,” Cardenas said. “It just happened. Nobody knew the day or the time it was going to go, but it went, and we can’t get it back.”

Patty Gunderson, Lassen County Superintendent of Schools, said the county holds about $90 million in school funding — in fact, it’s the county’s largest account. She said her office needs 30 days to prepare payroll with Cardenas’ replacement, so it’s important for the board to make that appointment in a timely manner for the $2.6 million in monthly payroll to be administered correctly. She also said her office works closely with the department employees who are qualified to succeed Cardenas upon her retirement.

For more information
Click here to read LassenNews’ April 12, 2023 story, “Cardenas assumes county auditor’s responsibilities.”

Click here to read LassenNews’ Oct. 7, 2024 story, “Grand Jury’s Audit and Finance Committee investigates Lassen County Auditor-Controller.”

Click here to read LassenNews’ Aug. 1, 2025 story, “Cardenas announces retirement.”

Click here to read LassenNews’ Aug. 2, 2025 story, “Nancy Cardenas — Lassen County Treasurer/Tax Collector/Auditor/Controller — issues statement on her retirement.”