County Comptroller Aymar-Blair describes the job in talk at library

AMENIA — A rapt audience was on hand to hear Dutchess County Comptroller Dan Aymar-Blair detail the duties of his office during a talk at the Amenia Free Library on Tuesday, Aug. 5.

Staff members from the State Comptroller’s Office were also on hand to answer questions, inviting audience members to learn if they had unclaimed funds being held by the state in their names. One audience member was pleased to learn that indeed he had funds coming and received the forms needed to file a claim.

“The Comptroller’s Office watches over our financials,” said Deputy Town Supervisor Rosanna Hamm, who introduced the program. “The Comptroller is the chief accounting officer for the county,” she added, noting that Aymar-Blair’s visit would be the seventh such town visit he had scheduled to talk about the county budgets and the work of his office, intending to visit all of the towns in Dutchess County.

“Hyde Park and Beekman are coming up next among the stops,” Hamm said.

Several slides were a part of Aymar-Blair’s presentation, outlining facts and figures.

For example, Aymar-Blair noted that in 2022, the Amenia Free Library Association received $49,999.99 in Covid funding to support its programs and operations. The Town of Amenia had received $376,814 in State Sales Tax payments in 2024.

“Not many people know what a Comptroller does,” Aymar-Blair said, noting that he began his service in the office in January and found that to be so.

“We oversee the integrity of the books,” Aymar-Blair said, working on behalf of the people in providing independent checking and review of many aspects of the accounting books, focusing on analyzing large-scale or complex operations.

“We’re trying to make the government work better for the people,” Aymar-Blair said of the responsibility to weed out waste, abuse and mismanagement, with a view toward the long-term financial picture.

Aymar-Blair noted that he is the eighth Comptroller to serve in the office since 1968, although he is also the third in the past three years.

The office of 13 staff members conducts claims (invoice) auditing, reviewing daily payments. Expenditures are the focus of the Comptroller; revenues are the responsibility of the finance office. The office approves purchase orders and reviews all contracts.

Informational reports and audit reports are issued regularly and available on-line, along with special reports as they are called for.

“We should always be striving to be better,” Aymar-Blair said.

Audience questions focused on cuts to Medicaid and other challenges. Aymar-Blair said that the “federal environment is a distraction and that federal funding is a total distraction.”

“My job is to look backward, not forward,” Aymar-Blair said in response, noting that he has a great team in his office who collaborate well.

“I would like to see better planning,” he said.