Chapter 4: "You're Here as Our Secretary"
How Connie Gramarossa Publicly Humiliated a Duly Elected County Auditor on His Way Out the Door
There is a particular kind of cruelty that wears the mask of parliamentary procedure. On the evening of November 20, 2024, at the LaPorte County Board of Commissioners meeting, President Connie Gramarossa delivered a masterclass in it. With the cameras rolling and the public record open, she spent the final weeks of Tim Stabosz's four-year tenure as LaPorte County Auditor repeatedly — and deliberately — calling him "our secretary." Not once. Not twice. By the count of those watching, she did it at least seven times across a single agenda item. [1]
The exchange, which begins around the 1:59:00 mark of the publicly archived meeting video, is not a slip of the tongue or a moment of confusion. It is a sustained, calculated effort to diminish a duly elected constitutional officer in front of his colleagues, the county attorney, and the public — a man who, at the time, had approximately one month left in his term. Gramarossa and the board already knew Stabosz had not sought re-election as auditor, having instead run unsuccessfully for a commissioner seat. He was, in the language of lame-duck politics, on his way out. And Connie Gramarossa made sure he felt it. [2]
The Setup: A Lawsuit, a Payment, and a Double Standard
To understand what happened that night, you have to understand the dispute that triggered it.
Attorney Alan Sirinek had filed a lawsuit against Auditor Tim Stabosz personally, stemming from a reduction Stabosz made to a bill Sirinek had submitted for county payment. Stabosz, consistent with his long-standing position that the county should pay legal defense costs for elected officials sued in the course of their official duties, requested that the county cover his legal defense. The matter came before the board on November 20 as the "Sirinek v. Stabosz" agenda item. [1]
Commissioner Rich Mrozinski moved that Stabosz should hire his own attorney — and that if he won the case, he could then go to the County Council to seek reimbursement. Commissioner Joe Haney seconded, but added a pointed amendment: that any individual being sued in a personal capacity should fund their own defense, "just for consistency's sake." [1]
That amendment was not abstract. It was a direct and factually grounded reference to a separate, ongoing legal matter: a federal wrongful termination lawsuit in which both Gramarossa and Mrozinski are named as individual defendants. That suit, brought by former LaPorte County Highway Department Superintendent Allen Stevens and two other terminated employees, alleges that "Mrozinski and Gramarossa exceeded the scope of their authority as public officials and are, therefore, individually liable for their unlawful actions." [3] Despite being personally named, Gramarossa and Mrozinski had been having county taxpayers foot their legal bills — the very thing they were now refusing to extend to Stabosz.
The hypocrisy was not subtle. And Connie Gramarossa did not like having it pointed out.
The Rant: Seven Times "Secretary"
What followed was a prolonged and increasingly hostile exchange between President Gramarossa and Auditor Stabosz, documented in the official meeting minutes. The minutes record the following sequence of statements from Gramarossa, directed at Stabosz as he attempted to explain his position on the record: [1]
"Auditor Stabosz, I'm here if you have any questions... I think we need to second — you're here in the capacity as our secretary and so..."
When Stabosz responded that he was not "merely here in that capacity," Gramarossa pressed further:
"I think we need to second — you're here as our secretary, sir."
Stabosz replied that her characterization was "not statutorily accurate." Gramarossa was undeterred:
"I'm not going to get into with you, you're here as our secretary, I'd like to get further information..."
Later, as the exchange grew more heated and Stabosz continued to assert his position:
"We're not going to get into this, I'm not going to have a discussion with the secretary. Can we have a motion to table this?"
And again:
"We're going to have our secretary screaming in a meeting, I mean this is ridiculous."
When Stabosz identified himself — "the Auditor, the Auditor of La Porte County, not the secretary" — Gramarossa responded:
"You are here in the capacity of a secretary, you're supposed to be taking minutes for us and you don't even do that, you farm that out."
After a recess and the meeting's resumption:
"You need to stop sir, you're here as a secretary."
And finally, in the closing moments of the item:
"You're sued personally also. Pay your own bills."
Why "Secretary" Is Both Wrong and Deliberate
Gramarossa's repeated use of the word "secretary" deserves scrutiny, because it is not merely an insult — it is a legally inaccurate diminishment of a constitutional office.
The Indiana County Auditor is a duly elected, independently constitutional officer of county government, not a subordinate of the Board of Commissioners. Under Indiana law, the County Auditor serves as the fiscal officer of the county, is responsible for auditing all claims against the county, prepares the county budget, manages tax duplicates, and — yes — also serves in an ex-officio capacity as clerk or secretary of the Board of Commissioners and the County Council. [4] [5] That last function is one among many. It does not define the office, and it certainly does not make the auditor a subordinate employee of the commissioners.
The distinction matters enormously. A secretary serves at the pleasure of their employer. A duly elected county auditor serves the voters of LaPorte County. Gramarossa's framing — repeated seven times — was designed to strip Stabosz of that distinction in the public record, to reduce a four-year elected official to a note-taker, and to signal to everyone in the room that his objections, his legal arguments, and his moral standing were beneath her consideration.
| Office | How Selected | Serves | Relationship to Commissioners |
|---|---|---|---|
| County Auditor | Elected by voters | The public / county government | Independent constitutional officer; ex-officio clerk to commissioners |
| Secretary / Clerk | Appointed/hired | Employer | Subordinate employee |
The irony of Gramarossa's "you farm that out" jab — implying Stabosz did not even personally take the minutes — is that the auditor's office routinely delegates clerical functions to staff. That is not dereliction; it is how every county office operates. But in the heat of a public humiliation campaign, accuracy was not the point.
The Deeper Pattern: Silence Those Who Disagree
What makes this episode significant is not just the rudeness. It is what the rudeness reveals about how Connie Gramarossa exercises power.
Tim Stabosz was not a random citizen. He was the elected Auditor of LaPorte County, appearing before the board in his official capacity, attempting to explain a legal and ethical position that had substantial merit. His argument — that commissioners personally named as defendants in a federal lawsuit should not be the ones approving their own legal defense payments from county funds — is not a fringe view. It is a straightforward conflict-of-interest argument that he had raised consistently and in good faith. He had even offered a compromise: let the County Council approve the payment to remove any appearance of impropriety. [3]
Gramarossa's response to that reasoned position was not a counter-argument. It was a status attack. By calling him "the secretary," she was communicating something very specific: your opinion does not count here, your role is to take notes and be quiet, and if you disagree with me, I will use this podium to make you feel small.
This is a pattern that appears throughout the public record of Gramarossa's tenure. When Commissioner Joe Haney raised the consistency argument — that the same standard applied to Stabosz should apply to Gramarossa and Mrozinski — she did not engage with the substance. She called a recess. When Stabosz pushed back on being called a secretary, she escalated. When the meeting reconvened, she and Mrozinski added one final indignity: a motion of "No Confidence" in the auditor, which passed 2-1 over Haney's objection, in the closing minutes of what was effectively Stabosz's last regular meeting. [1]
Commissioner Haney's response to the "No Confidence" motion was measured but pointed:
"We've got roughly six weeks here left, you know, the current make-up here and it's unfortunate that we continue to go down this path as well as rules for some but not for others, it's unfortunate."
Stabosz's final words in the official record of that meeting: "Pure politics. You should be ashamed of yourselves." [1]
What the Record Shows
The November 20, 2024 meeting is a matter of permanent public record, archived on video and in the official minutes of the LaPorte County Board of Commissioners. Anyone who watches the video or reads the minutes will find the same thing: a sitting board president using her position to publicly demean an elected official who was doing his job, raising legitimate legal and ethical concerns, and doing so in his final weeks of service to the county.
Tim Stabosz served as LaPorte County Auditor from 2021 through the end of 2024. During that time, he was sued, subjected to multiple "No Confidence" votes, and spent the better part of four years in open conflict with a majority of the Board of Commissioners. Reasonable people can disagree about some of his decisions. But what happened on November 20, 2024, was not a policy disagreement. It was a public humiliation — deliberate, sustained, and conducted by a person who holds elected office and is entrusted with the dignity of public proceedings.
The question worth asking is not whether Connie Gramarossa had the parliamentary authority to call Stabosz "our secretary." The question is what it tells us about her character that she chose to do it — seven times — to a man who was on his way out the door.
References
[1]: LaPorte County Board of Commissioners Meeting Minutes, November 20, 2024 — Official minutes, La Porte County, Indiana.
[2]: LaPorte County Board of Commissioners November 20, 2024 — YouTube — Publicly archived video, Access LaPorte County Media. See timestamp 1:59:00.
[3]: Commissioners Again Suing Auditor — Stan Maddux, Hometown News Now, April 18, 2024.
[4]: SBOA Resource Library: County Auditors — Clerk or Secretary of Official Bodies — Indiana State Board of Accounts.
[5]: Indiana Code Title 36, Article 2, Chapter 9 — County Auditor — Indiana General Assembly.