2 weeks Ago
In 2021, the League of Women Voters of Champaign County initiated a study on the structure of county government. Why? League members recognized that Illinois law grants to the voters the ability to determine how county government is structured in four specific areas: the existence of three elected offices (recorder, auditor and coroner) and the form of governance for the county board (county board chair or elected executive). Is the current setup the best way county government could be operated? This is not the first time many people have raised this critical question.
In November 2010, in a bipartisan effort we offered a similar resolution to the county board to pose the question to the voting public in a referendum to eliminate the auditor position. The resolution passed the county board then, as it did again this year. The current auditor’s ineptness and lack of attention to detail points out again the role of auditor should not be an elected position.
This is not the only time ineptness and lack of attention to detail has happened in the position — in 2010, the auditor did not show up to work for months. Some would say you can throw the bum out in the next election, but why do we have to wait? Fourteen years ago, we wrote a similar editorial in support of eliminating an elected auditor position in county government. It is amazing how the same words apply to today’s situation: “As an elected official, the county auditor is left to discharge his or her duties as he or she sees fit and is answerable only to the voters every four years.
What if someone with inferior qualifications or an inferior work ethic is elected to that office? Can that person be removed from office? Can the county board exercise supervision or oversight? The unfortunate straight-forward answer is no; the county board has no oversight for the elected county officials other than public criticism voiced at committee or board meetings.” “Only 16 of the 102 counties in Illinois have elected county auditors. The rest of the Illinois counties address the financial oversight of their county budgets, revenues, and expenditures by qualified officials or by contracts for external audits.
” “The office of county auditor does not belong to any sitting official. The office does not belong to the county board. The office does not belong to any political party.
The office of county auditor belongs to the people of Champaign County. We propose that the issue of whether the office should remain an elected office or be eliminated as an elected office be placed on the ballot for the November 2010 general election.” The irony of the League of Women’s Voters exercise in 2021 — conducting their study and reaching these same conclusions — is that we as county board members offered and passed a resolution to ask the voting public the same question to eliminate the auditor position in November of 2010.
The irony is that the ineptness and unprofessionalism in that office continues today. Please vote YES to eliminate the elected position of county auditor on November 5, 2024..
