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As of this time, Tibbits has not been charged with any crime, but with the controversies regarding bill paying and expenses within the county government, we decided to look into what the process is for how a bill is paid in the county.

To get a handle on the situation, discussion took place with Huron County Corporate Counsel Steve Allen, Huron County Clerk Peggy Koehler and Huron County Board of Commissioners Chair Robert Haldane.

Huron County Corporate Counsel Steve Allen explained, "All of those (expenditures) go through the Board of Commissioners for payment, through the clerk's office (first) then are presented to the board. There is stuff there that the commissioners can dig through; remember there is a big trust with department heads."

He added, "There is a lot of travel within the Sheriff's Department. Especially for travel, there is a lot of activity in that account."

Allen said the expenses are created, collated by department heads and their offices and work their way to the Board of Commissioners. Pertaining to gasoline expenses within the Sheriff's Department he said, "There are a couple gas cards the sheriff uses, the main account is through Pacific Pride, for gasoline; you see a lot of activity there, plus the sheriff is involved with the Michigan Sheriff's Association."

Huron County Clerk Peggy Koehler explained many expenditures are paid with representation, with the actual bill or receipt. There are also those expenditures that are paid without representation, no actual invoice. These are for the most part the ongoing general bills, according to Koehler. She said the Board of Commissioners get a listing of those bills.

"These (all bills) are budgeted items, they are all assigned an account number to be taken out of the budget. The account number has to be on the bill before they are paid; my office does not put the account numbers on the bills, the department heads do that," Koehler said.

She added, "It is not up to my office to question the bills being presented for payment. The Department Heads present the bills to our office; we are here to process the bills, not question the bills. The Huron County Board of Commissioners is advised of every bill that goes through this office."

That led us to speak with Huron County Board of Commissioners Chair Robert Haldane. Haldane said, "We (Board of Commissioners) review the bills every month, as a board. We split the bills up among the board; we sign and go through each one individually, and we sign each bill. There has to be two signatures on every bill; the only exceptions are those paid without representation. If a bill is questionable, it is sent back to the Department Head with a note to find out what it is, what it is for. I am not sure if those gas credit cards are in the category of paid without representation. The bills are all prepared by the Department Heads and they are responsible for each bill that is presented to us (for payment)."

In an attempt to dig into the issue a little deeper, particularly pertaining to the Huron County Sheriff's Department, the Huron County Press contacted Tibbits, however, given the current situation, he referred us to his attorney, Michelle Biddinger.

Biddinger was out of the office when we contacted her and did not return our call prior to press time.