Oklahoma County Clerk Maressa Treat signed $1.4 million in contracts signed without commissioner approval, KFOR first reported Thursday, Oct. 8.

The contracts covered work the clerk's office typically handles with its own staff, according to former Assistant Oklahoma Attorney General Tim Gilpin, who reviewed the arrangements for KFOR.

Oklahoma County committed about $1.5 million total to Ernst & Young over two years. Only the first contract went through the standard approval process: a $100,000 agreement in June 2024 for an "organizational assessment" of the clerk's office. The district attorney's office reviewed that deal, and both commissioners and Treat signed it.

The pattern changed in May 2025.

Treat signed a new $275,000 agreement with Ernst & Young to help finish the county's overdue annual financial report. She was the only county official to sign it, records show. Nine more agreements and amendments followed, stretching the work through December 2026.

Tim Gilpin, a former assistant Oklahoma attorney general, told KFOR that county offices hiring outside contractors are expected to get permission from the Board of County Commissioners. He said the Ernst & Young work is the kind the clerk's own financial staff would normally perform. Gilpin said he would expect any office spending that much to "seek the permission of the board of county commissioners, if nothing else, just to cover yourself."

KFOR reported that former Commissioner Carrie Blumert did not respond to its inquiries and Commissioner Brian Maughan had no comment. Treat's office issued a written statement after KFOR’s report.

In that statement, Treat's office said Ernst & Young was hired so taxpayers and county leaders could have a reliable budget number. The statement pointed to progress sorting through the county's financial systems.

The contracts come against a backdrop of financial turmoil. The state auditor verified the county's fiscal year 2026-27 general fund balance at $25,942,625 after a review found about $10 million had been overestimated on the books. Maughan called the discrepancy "a human error on an inputting error that was put in an excel spreadsheet."

On Sept. 18, the Board of County Commissioners voted unanimously to request an audit of the county's fiscal year 2025 budget. The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (OSBI) is also investigating alleged embezzlement in the clerk's office, which Treat has said is unrelated to the bookkeeping errors.