I’m at the mid-point of my term as your county auditor. I’m so proud of all the office has accomplished the last two years:
- We’ve issued good audits with recommendations that help improve County government.
- We are receiving public feedback on our reports and ideas on audit topics.
- We have quarterly newsletters and post on social media to keep folks in-the-know about office projects.
- We’ve completed a strategic plan, updated our policies and procedures, and implemented new audit software.
Go team!
Looking ahead, we are going to work on some great audits. We are also preparing for our first external quality assurance review (audit of the auditor) in 2025. I’m looking forward to getting an assessment of our office’s work and seeing areas where we can improve! While there are areas I know need some tweaks, having an outside, expert review will be extremely helpful.
I want to be up-front that we’re also going to have to approach our business differently in the next two years. For Fiscal Year 2025-26, County departments are being asked to develop budgets with reduction scenarios of 10 percent, 13 percent, and 17 percent of the their total budget. It’s a pretty sobering situation, particularly since departments, including ours, have already been through two years of cuts.
Our priority will always be to get out useful audits that help the County work better. Retaining our staff are key to doing this. The types of audits and scope and objectives will change with any cut we take. We will do fewer audits. We won’t be able to contract for outside expertise when we need it. We will likely be looking at narrower topics. If we do a bigger, broader audit, we have to go into it knowing it may be the only one we get out during the year. Our ability to provide technical assistance to other County departments will be limited.
I write this to acknowledge the challenges that Washington County, and many other jurisdictions are facing in funding services in order to meet the realities of significant property tax limitations. Our leaders are having to make some painful decisions in order to face the realities of our financial structure.
I am grateful for the opportunity to serve the people of Washington County as their County Auditor. I am also continually thankful for my talented team who constantly look out for ways to improve County government for the public good.
|