Butler County Sheriff Dennis Rickard isn't worried about an impending visit from the state treasurer's office.

Rickard said Tuesday his office has all of the information requested by the treasurer's office, which will audit his financial records.

"We're more than willing to assist them," he said.

The treasury department's bureau of audits will specifically examine records of unclaimed property from January 1995 to December 2002 and unclaimed wages from January 1995 to December 2002.

Under state law, abandoned and unclaimed property, such as uncashed checks, must be turned over to the state treasurer's office after a five-year holding period. An exception to the five-year rule is payroll. Wages are considered unclaimed after two years.

The state audit is the latest development in what started as a conflict between Rickard and county Controller Jack McMillin about the sheriff's record keeping. That issue led to the county commissioners in 2002 hiring the Pittsburgh firm of Grossman Yanak & Ford to compile the sheriff's financial records from 1999.

Eventually the county paid Grossman Yanak & Ford about $60,000 for its work.

However, the firm's recommendations did not lead to a resolution between the two county offices.

The issue of the sheriff's records came up again this summer when the accounting firm Maher Duessel in its 2004 audit of the county recommended the sheriff's several bank accounts, which totaled $1.3 million, be frozen until the record keeping could be straightened out.

The Butler law firm of Dillon McCandless King Coulter & Graham, which represents Rickard, refutes the findings of the Maher Duessel audit.

Then, the state treasury department earlier this month decided to do its own audit.

In a letter dated Oct. 12, Brian Munley, director of the bureau of audits, said a pre-audit conference would be scheduled with Rickard within two weeks.

The actual audit could begin as early as the day of the conference or begin later if all of the necessary paperwork would not be available.

Karen Walsh, communications director for the treasury department, said if the state does determine money is owed, payment arrangements would then be made.

McMillin and Rickard do agree on one point - that the sheriff's office owes money to the state. Rickard said he's sure his office does owe money from unclaimed property, or escheats, but not because of bad record keeping. He said it's due to McMillin refusing to audit his department in recent years.

Rickard said he would welcome any suggestions the treasury department has for his office procedures following the audit.

The county commissioners just want a resolution to the long-running debate.

Commissioner Glenn Anderson said he hopes the state audit will resolve the problem. Commissioner Jim Kennedy agreed, saying he's confident the sheriff would work with state officials.

"I have no reason to think it won't be resolved," he said.