Auditors must persevere in their efforts, even when they have doubts whether they make a difference. We expect and hope for something better than we usually find. We diligently report what needs to be done. Yet the incremental progress of our work is daunting in the breadth of all the areas that need to be audited.
Upon reading about its past, I came to appreciate the culture and environment where I audited, and greater confidence in government’s incrementalism. This wasn’t a history book, it was two reports about Portland[i] and Multnomah County governments[ii] and more specifically, how well they served the public. These reports described incompetence and dereliction at a scale hard to imagine today. In the intervening century since those reports, real progress was made in the professionalism of public service in our local governments, and I would bet in yours as well.
In 1913, the New York Bureau of Municipal Research arrived and conducted reviews of Portland and Multnomah County. The group applied the scientific management methods of F.W. Taylor in its consulting services to cities around the country. These two reports describe in detail the operations of the city bureaus and county departments, using data and measures where possible, in strong, vintage language. Here is part of their assessment of Portland’s police:
The chief is an acting chief, known by his force not to wish the position and to be holding it temporarily; he still has no deputy, although the appropriation has been passed; there are no physical or setting-up exercises, although Captain Moore has taken interest in March drills; there is no instruction of the police during their probationary period, or afterward, in the duties of police, in use of a revolver or in first aid to the injured. They do not know and have never been taught what constitutes proper evidence so that their time and that of the Court need not be wasted and the law flouted by bringing persons before the Court who must be dismissed for “want of evidence”
Who knew that marching was an important skill for police officers? The rest of that section is a catalog of problems, any one of which would be an entire audit. While the Police Bureau still has its problems, they are starkly different than in that era.
In the county report the researchers analyze the productivity of sheriff’s process servers in comparison to those of the constable servers:
Even comparing the services by the sheriff with the cases registered by the constable, there were 60% more cases registered by the latter than there were services by the former.
Practically the same result is obtained by computing on a monthly basis the work done by the regular men in each of these offices. Of the 7230 services made by the sheriff’s office 5703 were made by the eight men regularly employed, seven working 12 months and one working 7 months, or a total of 79 working months. 5703 divided by 79 gives 72.2 services per man per month.
Of the 11,583 cases in which documents were served by the constable’s office 10,747 of the cases were handled by the seven regular men in 77 working months. This is an average of 140 cases per man per month as against the sheriff’s 72.2 services per man per month. It is thus evident that the constable handles 50% more cases per man than the sheriff’s men make services. Allowing the constable an average of two services per case, which is fair, his men thus make four times as many services per man as the sheriff’s men.”
Before F.W. Taylor, this kind of analysis was unusual, but it resembles auditing and a close read even suggests some elements of a finding.
The reports examine all the major agencies. Here are few more excerpts.
Portland Fire: “Engine House No. 6 is almost dilapidated and in a very bad location. The horses must run a half block on an improvised wooden runway built on the sidewalk before reaching the street, and then make a hairpin turn in order to go to fires in the mill section.”
County Poor Farm: “Relative to conditions within the institution, it is suggested that the coffin makers should do their work somewhere else than in the large room where the old people congregate each day. The basement of the main building is equipped with seats as a lounging place and here each day in full view of all those in the room the carpenter is engaged or making coffins. This condition is at least not conducive to a cheerful frame of mind on the part of the inmates.”
Portland Health Department: “With the same number of cases of smallpox per hundred thousand population as Portland had last year, New York would have had 5400 cases; it actually had but 22 cases. Portland had nearly one-third more deaths from typhoid in proportion to population than did New York.”
County Roads Department: Instead of simply keeping forces of men employed on the roads as long as there is any money in the road funds, a definite plan should be prepared by the road superintendent at the beginning of each year, setting forth the roads which it is proposed to build during the year and the estimated cost per mile and per square yard of each. With such amplifying and modifying by the county board as may seem necessary, these estimates should then be officially adopted as the work programme for road construction that year.
City Performance measures: “Such departmental reports as have been rendered have been such a hodgepodge of information and misinformation that the average taxpayer has been discouraged from even attempting to glean anything of value from them… Throughout the entire report there is an absence of comparisons of costs of the past year with preceding years and of results obtained from year to year. Although the mind can grasp percentages much more readily than large amounts, there is almost an utter failure to use percentages in setting forth any of the varied kinds of information.
Throughout the commercial world, the value of graphic charts has been recognized as a medium for imparting a large amount of data within a small space, and so that it may be comprehended at a glance. With the exception of the water department report, no use whatever has been made of graphic charts in the city’s reports.”
County Financial controls: “With respect to payrolls, it may be said that there are none, notwithstanding most of the county’s expenses are for salaries and wages. The heads of the various offices, institutions, and functions transmit to the auditor at the close of each month (in fact, a few days before the close of each month) a list of the persons employed under their respective supervision, and the amount said to be due them for that particular month. These lists, although sworn to, contain no reference to any individual reports or records showing the kind and exact time of service rendered by each person named thereon.”
City Incinerator and Garbage Collection: “Whereas the present incinerator is ably operated under the direction of a competent superintendent, the garbage collection is a disgrace to any city.… Private Collection of garbage always a failure considering the fact that collection of garbage by private scavengers has proved to be a failure wherever tried, it is not surprising that such has been the result in Portland. It is difficult, if not impossible, with such a method to exercise any direct control over the men, equipment or method of collection. Many of the wagons leak badly, none have tight covers and generally are in miserable condition, in need of both painting and cleaning. The stench from the open wagons during the summer months must be terrific. These statements are not new to the community members of Portland—everyone realizes the absurdity and disgraceful condition of the present situation, yet nothing is done. Perhaps a slight elaboration on the cost side might hasten proper action.”
County Board of Relief: “It is generally recognized among charity workers and social workers everywhere, that some special training or experience is necessary in order to secure the most effective results in charity work as it is modernly administered – that is, work of a constructive nature…. The clerk of the Board of Relief of Multnomah County was formerly in the liquor business in Portland and prior to that was a detective in the police department. He has had no training for the duties which devolve upon him in his present office nor has he endeavored to equip himself by reading any of the several magazines and other publications relating to charitable and social work.”
County personnel competence: “None of the county employes [sic] are selected by competitive examination or by any examination whatever…Most of the administrative officials of the county are elected and each is free and unhampered to appoint any persons he may choose to place on the payrolls of the office or function over which he has jurisdiction….If they were retained in office under proper efficiency requirements from one administration to another, the county would reap the benefit in the form of better public service rendered instead of the service suffering as it has heretofore after each election by losing a large proportion of the experienced employes and beginning anew with a complement of persons who are untrained in the duties required.”
Even the County Auditor: “The auditor is the chief accounting officer of the county. Section No. 3053 of the Oregon statutes is very clear on this point. It says: “He, (the auditor) shall establish and maintain in each department and office in the county such system of keeping accounts and transacting the county business as shall secure accuracy, economy and protection of the county’s interests.”
“Attitude of the County Auditor. The defects in the accounting, auditing and reporting procedure as pointed out herein and attributed to the county auditor are many. They are acts of omission rather than commission. A large proportion of the untoward conditions are due to his failure to adopt an aggressive policy in enforcing section 3053 of the statutes.”
The reports contain many more interesting descriptions that reveal the unsophisticated practices of that era, and the emerging approach called “scientific management.”
All those things we now take for granted – professionalism of the workforce, sound management practices, public works investments, documentation and record-keeping – were lacking at that time. Accountability was lacking as well because men (at that time) only had their vote to hold the top government officials accountable, when the need went much deeper.
Those expectations, and demands, for accountability grew our field of auditing from an accounting officer to an independent, objective professional reporting our findings to the public. We still make progress happen.
Those two reports were published verbatim in the daily newspaper and one consequence may have been that Portland voters replaced the strong mayor form of government with the commission form of government a few months later in 1913. In that year, women were also allowed to vote for the first time.
[i] (New York Bureau of Municipal Research 1913) Organization and Business Methods of The City Government of Portland, Oregon
[ii] (New York Bureau of Municipal Research 1913) Review – Multnomah County
