Patricia Doxsey is reporting for the Daily Freeman an audit of the Ulster County Public Defender's Office shows significant improvements in grant management have been made in the past year. In 2020, County Executive Pat Ryan said that failures within the office led to the loss of nearly $2.5 million in state aid, including $1.9 million that would have covered money spent by the county. Still, county Comptroller March Gallagher said, there is room for improvement and she urged the Ryan administration to change how it budgets grant revenues and the corresponding expenses. Gallagher released the findings of the audit April 28. Her office conducted the review in response to the February 2020, call by Ryan to conduct a comprehensive review of the past six years of the public defender’s finances. The audit revealed three key problems: A lack of oversight and monitoring that resulted in the underutilization of grants; the failure of the administration to budget expenditures necessary to receive budgeted revenues, and its failure to document budget deviations from department requests; and, the failure of the Public Defender's Office to collect data metrics to assess improvements to indigent legal services. In 2017, 2018, and 2019, then-Public Defender Andrew Kossover requested additional positions that would have been paid for through state grants. Ryan's predecessor, Michael Hein rejected the requests, but failed to remove from the county budget the revenue the county would have received if the positions were filled. Gallagher said the Ryan administration initially claimed the documentation did not exist, but after months of wrangling she was able to obtain that information using the subpoena power of her office. Read the full story in the Daily Freeman.