Freeborn County Auditor-Treasurer Dennis Distad received the State Auditor of the Year Award at the annual Minnesota Association of County Officers Winter Conference in Minneapolis earlier this week.

This is one of the highest honors awarded by the state. Auditors from all 87 counties in Minnesota received a ballot to nominate who they believed deserved to be recognized as Auditor of the Year. Distad received the most votes.

“I had no idea idea, I was dumbfounded,” he said of receiving the honor during a banquet Wednesday evening.

“My staff, my wife, my son, everybody else knew about it, but I was totally in the dark.”

He said 18 friends, family members and co-workers from Freeborn County attended the dinner Wednesday night, to show their support. Co-workers who did not travel to the event watched him receive the award on Skype.

MACO is comprised of county auditors, treasurers, recorders and financial officers in Minnesota. All 87 Minnesota counties are members. MACO is made up of individual associations of auditors and treasurers and a separate association of recorders. These include the Minnesota Association of Auditors, Treasurers and Financial Officers (MACATFO) and the Minnesota County Recorders Association (MCRA).