AURORA | An Aurora City Council member on Thursday announced that he will ask fellow lawmakers to send a ballot item to voters this fall that would enhance the independence of the city’s internal auditing staff.
Councilmember Curtis Gardner’s proposal would add the position of “city auditor” to the handful of officials directly hired and fired by the council, which include the city attorney, municipal judge, court administrator and city manager.
Currently, Aurora’s Internal Audit Department reports to the city manager and is tasked with auditing the finances, policies and governance of other entities under the city manager’s control
While Gardner said in a news release that his proposal wasn’t motivated by mistrust of current city officials, he argued moving auditors out from under the city manager would address “the inherent conflict of interest that exists today with the Internal Audit Department sitting in the same reporting structure with the leadership and departments they are supposed to investigate.”
“A city auditor appointed by the elected body would be more accountable and transparent
to our voters,” Gardner said in the release. “The auditor function is so crucial to ensuring we have efficient and effective processes in place, (provide) good value to our taxpayers, and (safeguard) against fraud, waste and abuse.”
The auditor would be chosen by a majority vote of the council. Gardner will first bring his proposal to the council’s April 22 study session, the release said.
I support CM Gardner 100% on this provided that the auditor’s decisions related to risk management, i.e. what/where to audit and the reporting that results are free from council influence/control and are fully shared with the public. If such matters are to be routinely concealed in council’s Executive Sessions, then no.
On a related subject, when was the last time the District Attorney prosecuted any City of Aurora official for financial crimes involving public money? Are we to believe that they’ve all been innocent through the decades or is it that the DA’s office routinely ignores government corruption as a matter of policy?
If having a fully transparent and accountable Auditor is really the intention, I would suggest following the example of the City and County of Denver and having the voters select the Auditor. An elected auditor is able to transparently apply scrutiny to both elected and appointed city officials — on behalf of the taxpayers and residents of the City.