Bannock County Facilities and Events Director Aaron Greenwell has been placed on paid administrative leave, according to county officials.

When asked about the county placing Greenwell on paid leave, Bannock County Commissioner Ken Bullock told the Journal during a Wednesday phone interview that the decision was made in the interests of maintaining transparent practices within county government.

“That was just an agreement to move in that direction so that everything is handled as it should be moving forward,” Bullock said about the commissioners’ decision to place Greenwell on paid leave. “We hope that the process moves quickly and we can get back to normal.”

Greenwell did not respond to multiple requests from the Journal for comment and county officials would not say how long his paid leave is expected to last.

The Journal was told on Wednesday afternoon by the Bannock County Human Resources Department to file a public records request after asking about Greenwell’s annual salary and employment history with the county. Bannock County Human Resources officials told the Journal that once the request for information is filed, they have three days to approve or deny it.

County officials said the county commissioners placed Greenwell on paid leave about two weeks ago.

On Tuesday Bannock County Clerk Robert Poleki went before the County Commission to relay his request for an outside financial forensic audit of the Portneuf Wellness Complex and adjacent Bannock County Event Center, formerly known as the Bannock County north fairgrounds.

As the county’s facilities and events director, Greenwell manages the county’s Parks and Recreation Department.

The department is responsible for overseeing the Portneuf Wellness Complex and Bannock County Event Center.

It remains unclear if Greenwell’s paid leave has anything to do with the audit. The county officials, including Bullock, who confirmed Greenwell is on paid leave declined to comment about any connection when asked.

Poleki said he will likely meet with the auditors next week to get the financial evaluation underway.

Bannock County Prosecutor Steve Herzog declined to comment about Greenwell’s paid leave or the audit.

Poleki told the Journal during a Wednesday phone interview that he requested the forensic audit after the county’s Parks and Recreation Department went over its approximately $1.25 million annual budget by about $32,000 with more than one month remaining in the fiscal year.

“We have about 30-plus days left in the fiscal year and we anticipate the (parks and rec) budget going over close to about $100,000,” Poleki said.

Bannock County Commissioner Terrell “Ned” Tovey during a Wednesday phone interview defended the management of the Parks and Recreation Department’s finances.

Tovey said the department’s over-budget expenditures include a $10,000 water bill dating back to last year, a $16,000 water bill from this year —which was higher than anticipated because of the extremely hot and dry summer — and an approximately $7,000 accounting error.

“We take the budget extremely serious,” Tovey said. “We want to make sure that we are open and transparent with all budgetary issues, that we are accountable for all county tax dollars and that we are budgeting as accurately as possible.”

But budgetary problems do happen, Tovey added.

“The county geographic information system just overran $15,000 and their budget is a tenth of what the parks and recreation budget is,” Tovey said. “(GIS) went over budget because they had to replace a server that crashed this year.”

Moreover, Tovey said managing something as large as the Portneuf Wellness Complex — an 80-acre facility that includes a lake, a dozen sports fields, several basketball and volleyball courts, and an amphitheater that seats 11,000 people — is a massive undertaking.

Tovey said the county’s Parks and Recreation Department works tirelessly to maintain the Portneuf Wellness Complex, which was turned over to Bannock County from the Portneuf Health Trust in 2015.

“We have several managers up there and other awesome staff who have tried to complete tasks that are really hard and difficult,” Tovey said. “And they’ve undertaken this responsibility without a ton of resources.”

Tovey added, ”This is not an issue of bad management. We have good people that are trying really hard while being asked to do something that has never been done before. We are going to have issues on some things.”