A routine vote Wednesday to approve the minutes of a previous Butler County commissioners meeting turned into a heated discussion.

Commissioner Jim Eckstein initially did not want to approve the meeting minutes of the June 29 commissioners meeting. At that meeting, Eckstein spoke during public comment about a possible $3.4 million deficit — initially reported by Controller Ben Holland — that the county could be facing at the end of the year due to budgeting errors.

Eckstein objected to the fact that his comments appeared in the minutes as him speaking “about the county budget.” He went on to read the exact statement he gave at the June 29 meeting.

Commissioner Bill McCarrier asked if Eckstein wanted the entirety of his comments in the minutes. Eckstein said he did not want all of it in, but said it is important to emphasize the possible deficit in the minutes. He said he felt removing the mention of a deficit amounted to a “cover-up of the truth.”

“I think that is uncalled for,” Eckstein said.

He made a motion to add an abbreviated portion of his comments to the minutes. That died for lack of a second.

McCarrier said he thought the commissioners agreed in the past not to make the minutes so long by adding so much information about comments.

“I don’t think we need all of that in there,” McCarrier said.

He noted that Eckstein read his comments at the previous meeting and then read them again at this meeting. He said there may be an error in the budget, but it does not amount to something that could be called a “deficit.”