I spent my whole audit career either working for or being an elected auditor. I have no comparable experience answering to a legislative body, but I can talk about occasions in my 30 years when an elected auditor had obvious benefits.
Before you label me a politician, you should know that I never foresaw myself running or getting elected to anything. I was a staff auditor in Portland when Jewel Lansing approached me about running for Multnomah County auditor. She had been Multnomah County Auditor and then the Portland Auditor, when she hired me. I smiled at her, perhaps even chuckled, and said, “I’m an analyst, not a politician.”
The seed was planted though and I looked at the audits produced by the incumbent, whose only audit experience was conducting household energy audits for the local utility. He was elected on his name (the son of a former Portland mayor) and getting the most votes among a field of eight. I knew I could produce better audits, and the idea began growing.
As recommended in ALGA’s model legislation, the county and city offices are non-partisan and require a professional certification. I had the CIA certification, which was a new requirement that Jewel Lansing had always advocated for and voters had recently approved in the county charter. The incumbent did not have any certification and was running out of time to qualify.
I studied quite a lot for the exam, which in those days, included essay questions. Yes, we hand-wrote responses which were judged and months later we learned whether we passed. One day on the bus I was carrying the study book which had the prominent title, “CIA Exam Guide.” Only then did I make the connection with a passenger across the way giving me a wary look. Maybe I did look like a hopeful candidate for the CIA. As a result, I taped over the cover with 13-column ledger paper.
I think that certification requirement is a key factor in a successful elected audit function. It changes the nature of the office because political opportunists seem incapable or uninterested in getting a certification as a stepping stone to higher office. It opens the field to professionals who can serve a unique function separate from the illusions of politics.
Had I known the challenges of campaigning I probably would have hesitated but I made the leap to file. ‘A certified professional’ was my message using billboards and radio advertising to convince voters to vote for me, and depending upon newspaper endorsements to further persuade voters. It wasn’t easy because I had to raise a lot of money.
Money, money, money
Voters don’t think about an elected auditor and need to be educated about candidates. Thankfully, Oregon has a ‘voters pamphlet’ that goes to every voter household. For $300 a candidate gets to write up to 325 words to extol her or his priorities, skills, and experience.
Still, money is needed for other advertising and asking for campaign contributions is an important candidate chore. I had many ways to ask and many ways to rationalize this system. Ultimately, elections are a recruitment and hiring procedure that is financed by people who are willing to pay.
Sometimes their motives are not noble. I thought I could appeal to the business community who talk constantly about how government should be efficient and run like a business, but that was mostly talk. I learned that businesspeople don’t give money to candidates unless they can benefit their own bottom line. They never got anything from auditors and I wasn’t going to promise them anything either, so only a few small contributions. And I wouldn’t appeal to issue-oriented people (affordable housing, environment, transportation) because it could also violate independence Standards.
Ultimately, money comes from your friends, relatives, and their networks. I was heartened by those contributions from people who believed in me and wanted me to make a difference in government. During it all I also found help from groups of committed citizens who cared about good government.
I heard from many who had needs, questions and priorities that were not being addressed. In that way, campaigning changes the way you see your community. You meet its leaders and stakeholders who educate you about issues, and in return you may kindle a new understanding and respect for auditing.
I also encountered people who wanted me to cut the ‘waste’ out of government. When I probed on where they saw waste, I learned that they defined ‘waste’ as a program they didn’t want to pay for. I saw that as a policy issue, and politely listened.
Once elected, I committed to working so hard as auditor that no one would run against me. And nobody ever did. This is probably also due to it being a non-partisan office, with no parties involved. In partisan races, parties often feel obliged to field a candidate. (Political affiliation could also create an appearance issue around independence when auditing someone from the same party.) Our campaigns pit one professional against another and let the public decide. Without an opponent in subsequent races, I sometimes said my campaign slogan was “Better than nobody.” I also had a bit of fun with my campaign fundraising. Instead of campaign buttons, I put together a pamphlet to sell limited edition pocket protectors. These pocket protectors were “hand-checked” by me. They were two for $25 but many people sent the contribution but told me to keep the protector.
Campaign Messaging
Voters evaluate policies and personalities when they consider candidates. But auditors have neither. Just joking. Auditors have a simple set of policies: efficient, effective, and equitable services. As to personalities, citizens are often surprised that auditors can express clear ideas about government problems, show some empathy and humor, and tell them stories about management and accountability and audit conflicts. The bar is low for audit candidates.
For most people, even after you’ve explained performance auditing, they will ask you how the government’s budget is. If your race is competitive, it is particularly difficult to get voters to distinguish between a competent auditor and a great auditor. The differences are hard to explain.
Citizens don’t necessarily understand independence. You can say you are an outsider coming in to examine an agency, but they see you as part of government. I’ve tried explaining that we are a correcting mechanism in government, but that gets a blank stare. I’ve had acquaintances mention that I worked for a mayor and had to point out that I didn’t, reminded them I was elected and represented the public, and did what I thought appropriate.
Even when they don’t understand the details, they do understand accountability and want plenty of it for their government.
Unfettered auditing
Timing can be an important consideration for performance audits. As an elected auditor I found that the office could quickly adjust its audit schedule and audit workplans to address emerging issues. I always wondered whether audits could be unnecessarily delayed by having to consult or just explain to a legislative body or audit committee why a change was necessary.
Under an elected auditor, our audits could dig deeper and get bigger paybacks without having to justify the larger effort when we only had speculations. Ultimately, voters judged me on the improvements the office recommended, and they related to our performance audits, which mattered to them. We still tested controls and audited support and administration of course, but it was meaningful to explain audits about problems in adult foster care, or police deployment, or asphalt paving.
Being elected allowed me to refuse to conduct an audit. On several occasions elected officials asked me to conduct audits that were motivated by appearance. They wanted to show the public “they were doing something” about a problem in the newspaper. I would explain to them that an audit was too late, irrelevant, or unlikely to produce any value. Usually, they understood and grudgingly accepted my refusal.
I also encountered a public employee deference to me as an elected official, that ensured attention to our information requests. One danger of that deference is inadvertently breaking a rule that people are reluctant to tell you about. I always began my requests or questions with “please tell me if this goes against any rules or requirements…”.
Unnecessary audit committee
I’ve thought about audit committees for 30 years and could never see how an elected auditor would benefit from one. An elected auditor might benefit from an advisory committee, but even then, I’m not sure what on-going advice would be beneficial.
For example, a performance auditor who has contacted many citizens in a campaign and during the course of her or his work probably has a better sense of community priorities for developing an audit schedule than a group of citizens. That, combined with a good audit team keeping an eye out for potential audit topics, will produce better audit ideas than an audit committee largely dependent upon news reports and hearsay to inform them about county government.
The audit committee was created in a corporate environment and encouraged by the Institute of Internal Auditors to provide more independence and protection to the audit function. An elected auditor is accountable to the citizens and does not need that protection. For a legislative auditor, an audit committee may protect the audit function, but there must be some limits on its role – to protect not manage the auditor.
A peer among leaders
Being elected also gave me strong credentials when dealing with other elected officials. Oftentimes legislators are elected by district and the informal pecking order gives greater respect to jurisdiction-wide officials, like auditor. Just dealing with them as equals meant I could be franker when they were misinformed or incorrect in their facts, though I tried not to embarrass them in public. On a few occasions I did correct them in public when they ignored facts that I had already provided them.
I see a particular risk, or need, when legislative auditor’s access to information is controlled by the administration. Most local governments are administered by an elected executive/mayor or the chief executive in the council-manager form of government. While I have never worked in this structure, in my role as an ALGA advocacy committee member I’ve encountered several city or county managers who fight hard against having an auditor. I can only surmise that they fear an auditor’s different perspective as a threat to their position.
I found that many legislative officials appreciated candid discussions and explanations of how things work. Legislators sometimes need an informed and trusted person to lay out information they don’t always get from agency people. In private, those conversations can improve decision-making. Every auditor can serve that role because some topics divide legislators who would benefit from a steadfast factual source.
My framework
An elected auditor from another jurisdiction once told me, “You have two hats you can wear: an audit professional and a politician. Politicians can push further than an auditor. There are occasions when you can switch hats to accomplish things, and people won’t notice.”
In retrospect, perhaps I could have accomplished more with this subterfuge but I saw it as risk to my credibility. It was clear I had authority beyond other government employees, but I never put on the politician hat. For the greatest long-term impacts, I always believed it was best to be committed to objective facts, with agency people, other elected officials, and the public.
As an elected auditor I was duty bound to serve the public with my professional skills. Three fundamentals guided my decisions: the Standards, my commitment to the public, and my determination to change things for the better.
Through the years I carried a deeper understanding of our representative form of government and an abiding appreciation of the many citizens who cared about local government and depended on its services.
A former elected auditor
I began pondering the twin liabilities of auditor and politician if I wanted to pursue any future position. It wasn’t a serious consideration until I arrived at a point when I could no longer tolerate the city hall environment.
Other politicians have career paths through larger governments, representing larger populations or stepping into executive positions, until they are defeated of course. For me, I had no patience for the tangles in Robert’s rules of order, interpersonal conflicts, the inflexibility of advocates for causes, and excruciatingly long public meetings. A leap to an elected executive position was not possible against the crop of competent opponents already in office. A quote from a Brit haunted me as well: “All political careers end in failure.” I didn’t want that to happen to me.
I considered my other options. I could retire at 59 and live on the generous retirement benefits earned from my many years as a government employee. I didn’t feel used up though and wanted to do more. Portland and Oregon were home now and no other place would do. I explored consulting opportunities and training possibilities. I had heard of the politics, billing and marketing requirements, and grueling days of private firms, and knew I wouldn’t succeed there. Audit training might be worthwhile if I could develop my own curriculum but that needed a marketing effort as well. I explored an adjunct faculty position, teaching classes in performance auditing at the local university, but had reservations about the academic bureaucracy.
I chose to wait and see what might develop and announced my retirement. The newly elected Secretary of State Kate Brown solved my problem when she offered me the position of Audits Director. Still, it is a problem for anyone considering an elected auditor position, especially if they are too young to retire.
