BigRun, Pennsylvania

09/27/2025

Renee Stiver for Jefferson County Treasurer
Write her in!

Audit Reveals Recurring Financial Oversight Issues in Jefferson County Prothonotary/County Clerk of Courts Office

A recent audit conducted by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Department of Auditor General has uncovered financial oversight issues within the Jefferson County Clerk of Courts / Prothonotary’s Office. The audit, which reviewed operations over a multi-year period, resulted in two key findings, one of which was a recurring issue previously cited in an earlier audit.

Outstanding Checks Remain Unresolved
The first finding, labeled as “Inadequate Outstanding Check Procedures,” revealed that the office failed to address concerns raised in a prior audit covering 2016 to 2018. The current audit found 301 outstanding checks totaling $13,952.35, dated between 2019 and 2022 that were still outstanding, for the current audit period.
The office attributed the lack of follow-up to time constraints.

Manual Receipt Controls Found Lacking
The second finding, “Inadequate Internal Controls Over Manual Receipts,” highlighted multiple deficiencies in the handling of receipts during computer downtime. Among the issues:
-20 receipts were missing
-12 duplicate receipts were issued
-32 entries were incorrectly logged
-Several receipts not issued in sequence and/or not entered in the system properly

Toyna Geist, the current Jefferson County Prothonotary and Clerk of Courts, acknowledged the issues in her response. She stated that staff are trained to use daily manual receipts, and she did not realize that a clerk was incapable of understanding her job responsibility and thus resulted in inadequate accounting for manual receipts.
Auditors emphasized that poor internal accounting controls increase the risk of misappropriation and/or lost funds.

Geist, who also held the position during the previous audit, is currently running for Jefferson County Treasurer. She faces a Write-In challenge from Renee Stiver, the current Deputy Treasurer for Jefferson County, in the upcoming fall election. Current County Treasurer, James “Moon” Vansteenberg is retiring at year end.

The full audit report is available at www.paauditor.gov
dated 9/9/25

02/04/2024

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11/13/2023

🦌

Good morning from Jefferson County
Photo submitted by R. Craig Brush

11/05/2023

If you’re thinking about writing in Herb Bullers on Tuesday for county commissioner. . . THINK AGAIN.

Whether it is the self-dealing in county contracts with no competition, strong-arming building owners to use his company to utilize his commercial service or not paying contractors and putting the county on the hook for hundreds of thousands, headaches are best to get rid of—NOT preserve.

If you’re bored, wander into the courthouse (Brookville) on Monday and ask for copies of the judgements rendered against him. Prothonotary office. If you want copies, take a lot of change as they number MANY.

We don’t need more ethics investigations. We don’t need to pay his company to transport the election equipment around. It doesn’t feel right he even has access to it.

Humes is a GOOD human.

Vote Humes. . . Like Herb “never even happened”.

10/12/2023

Did you unnecessarily avoid great local food today because of the last rumor you heard?

Cold Water on the Rumor Mill

Re: tacos & trafficking

If you think Pizzagate switched food genres, the following is sure to disappoint you:

Spoiler: It wasn’t human trafficking.

I’ve spoken to some people close to this and I’ve laid eyes on reports and what I’ve discovered is this story has been blown way out of proportion.

The young woman (16) wasn’t an employee. She wasn’t there with the blessing of ownership. She was a runaway from New England who was dating a kid two years her elder. She was hiding and sketchy because she wanted to simply not be found.

$300-400 is not the price range a person nets when selling another human. That’s the price one pays for a ride several hundred miles away when after gas and tolls the driver nets maybe $100 for their time. This is consistent with a newly-minted 18-year-old boy and boyfriend who can’t afford Uber.

This restaurant will be coming to DuBois soon. I know great humans who are life-long friends with the owners (whom I’ve yet to meet).

The rumor mill is taking this one to InfoWars-like rabbit holes, but it isn’t remotely as nefarious as the speculation.

If they were actually guilty they’d have hired Bill Shaw by now as he’s probably the only one in three counties that wouldn’t turn them away. 😉

Let’s snap back to reality and stop piling on to the PR woes of a local family making their daily bread through their hard work.

When they open in town, I’ll pop in on the regular and check to make sure they’re not running sweatshops in the basement. Better yet—the building they’ll occupy doesn’t even have a basement.

07/18/2023

06/29/2023

Paint, wash, or remodel, Michael is the man. Phone 469-7640.