After voters finish casting their votes on November 3, the Lake County Auditor’s office will see a new face running it for the first time since 1986.
Lake County Recorder Regina “Gina” Pimentel, of Crown Point; and Charles “Chuck” Messler, of Lowell, are vying for the spot currently held by embattled longtime politician Peggy Holinga Katona.
Pimentel edged out victory with 36% of the vote to Holinga Katona’s 34% and former Calumet Township Assessor’s Office Chief of Staff Sondra Ford’s 31% in the May Primary; while Messler ran unopposed and received the Republican nomination, the Post-Tribune previously reported.
Messler, 39, whose wife, Jessica Messler, resigned as Deputy Executive Director of the Lake County Election and Registration Board to help his campaign, said he decided to run for the Auditor’s office after following the issues that office was having with the State Board of Accounts. Since he’s not a politician, he believes he can bring a fresh perspective to getting the office in order.
“The office was inauditible in 2023,”
Messler noted that the Indiana State Board of Accounts labeled the office “unauditable” in 2023, which meant there was not enough information for the state to complete its audit of the governmental entity. In December 2024, Lake County was removed from the State Board of Accounts’ unauditable list for its 2022 budget, but the followup audit report found persistent issues with payroll management, the Lake County Sheriff’s salary, and the Lake County Jail’s commissary fund, according to Post-Tribune archives.
“I’m an ironworker, so I know the work in the Auditor’s office is different than setting up steel beams in -40-degree weather,” he said. “But that’s why it can’t scare me, either.”
Messler said his first goal would be to hire a full-time certified public accountant to the office and make sure to establish protocols ensuring transparency. Indeed, he noticed some changes to the office’s public portal that support his ideas, he said.
“Either someone’s listening, or they inadvertently stole my idea,” Messler said. “But the people of Lake County should be able to see their information.”
Messler said he also read the report former Auditor’s Office Accountant Dan Ciecierski put together before Holinga Katona fired him last September.
“There were a few things I didn’t like, like the email Dan sent asking some of the workers to scan receipts into the system, and (an employee) wrote back that they weren’t going to do it. That was an internal controls mandate, so we need to be better stewards of (taxpayer) money.
“The pledge that I’m making is that we’re going to be helping people through common-sense accounting, and I think I can bring an energy people will appreciate. If I can help out, I’m going to be a presence that I hope people will enjoy having around.”
In 2023, a State Board of Accounts audit found that employees from the Lake County Auditor’s Office miscalculated the Property Tax Replacement Credit, overstating by about $40 million, according to Post-Tribune archives. As a result, taxpayers are going to pay about 4% more, spread out across the taxpayer base, in property taxes because the credit will be reduced.
Pimentel, who grew up in Hobart and went to Purdue University, worked as a case manager for Indiana Child Protective Services for five years when she accepted the Deputy Recorder position under former Recorder Mike B. Brown, the Post-Tribune previously reported. She first won the office in 2020 and is now in the middle of her second term, she said.
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Pimentel too read Ciecierski’s report and “didn’t disagree” with his findings. She said she’s met with County Finance Director Scott Schmal to go over budget findings and other items she would need to hit the ground running.
“The whole office needs a retrain, and I would want to make sure everyone’s working in the positions best suited for them,” Pimentel said. “There’s a lot to be addressed, and I’m an elected official who’s proven that I’m able to straighten it out; when I was elected to the Recorder’s office, I addressed every concern of the State Board of Accounts, and we didn’t have any findings from that office in 2025. I plan to tackle the Auditor’s office in the same way.
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.