Somewhere, in a “bizarro” dimension, Bazetta Township’s finances have already been made whole, because the Trumbull County auditor in that world understands her job and does it.

Actually, if such a dimension exists, it might well be that Bazetta never incurred a loss of more than $80,000 because the auditor there likely would have gotten in front of a fraudulent bank transfer request.

But as nice as that scenario sounds, we live in the real Trumbull County, and that means that we must deal with an auditor who doesn’t seem to understand the job and — in a critical moment — absolutely failed to perform it.

The result?

Auditor Martha Yoder has been ordered to repay Bazetta in a judgment entry by Trumbull County Common Pleas Court Judge Sarah Thomas Kovoor.

Why? Because in September 2024, an employee in Yoder’s office fell for a scam and transferred $80,857.18 into an online bank account based in California, according to court records. The scammer accessed an email account used by Bazetta’s fiscal officer and pretended to be her, asking that the township’s account be changed to a Green Dot Bank account, according to court documents.

Despite errors and inconsistencies in the emails that should have given away the fact that the request was illegitimate, the money was transferred. When Bazetta didn’t receive its expected deposit, fiscal officer Stacy Marling inquired and the fraud was uncovered. A second $80,000 payment was called back, but the first transfer was long gone.

Yoder has blamed Marling for not having two-factor authentication on her Bazetta email, arguing that enabled the scammer to gain access.

But several months before the theft, Yoder received a bulletin from Ohio Auditor of State Keith Faber warning of such scams targeting county government offices, according to court documents, and never shared that information with her employees nor told them about it.

In October, after the money was transferred, auditor’s office employees finally began training about such scams.

Too little, too late for Bazetta. When Yoder took no responsibility and refused to compensate the township, Bazetta trustees voted unanimously to sue. The lawsuit was filed on Nov. 20, 2024, and on Wednesday, Bazetta won in court.

And yet, a day later, Yoder was still deflecting, even after Judge Kovoor’s order. Her statement Thursday said she believes the court erred in its decision and plans to discuss legal options with her attorney.

If Yoder spent half as much time learning how to do her job and educating her employees as she has in shifting the blame for this fiasco, she’d be one heck of an auditor.

But currently? Not so much.

Yoder should write Bazetta a check and move on already.