The Audit the Vote group, which has attended the county commissioners meetings for the past several months, has overwhelmed the county offices with Right-to-Know requests that could cost taxpayers an additional $25,000 this year.

At their salary board meetings Monday, the commissioners approved an item on the agenda to hire a temporary employee to handle the multiple Right-to-Know (RTK) requests being sent to the commissioners.

Leslie Osche, commissioners chairwoman, said Tuesday that the employee would be paid up to $25,000 in 2022 for work retrieving information for RTK requests, poring through emails requested to redact information that is not available to the public, visiting multiple county departments to search for documents and information, determining whether a RTK request can legally be granted or denied, and working with the county solicitor on RTK requests.

The county’s RTK officer also is the assistant to Osche and Commissioner Kim Geyer. That officer has spent the majority of her time working on the voluminous RTK requests received since the Audit the Vote group began attending the commissioners meetings about six months ago to demand a “forensic audit” of the 2020 election, Osche said.

“She is basically not doing anything to support Kim and I because her time is completely spent on Right-to-Know requests,” Osche said.

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