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B Y M A X T H O R N B E R RY
CITY COUNCIL
STALLS ON
AUDITOR
PROPOSAL
Mayor’s study group presents options
The Eugene City Council delayed on a motion to create an
appointed independent office of the city auditor after a Monday,
Nov. 20, work session that also included a presentation by the
mayor’s performance auditor study group.
Measure 20-283 will appear on the May 2018 ballot for vot-
ers to decide whether they want an elected city auditor. The City
Council, though, could vote to put a competing measure before
the voters for an appointed auditor. The proposed measure would
institute an auditor who focuses on both finances and perfor-
mance.
At the work session, nearly every councilor asked a second
round of questions, but the council didn’t reach any conclusion.
Councilors will hold another work session before their winter
break to decide how to move forward.
Mayor Lucy Vinis adjourned the work session after determin-
ing that councilors had questions that City Attorney Glenn Klein
couldn’t answer in the meeting. The councilors will submit their
questions to Klein within two weeks, and he will respond in writ-
ing.
Questions councilors had included whether the city auditor
would have the power to audit EWEB and how much the auditor
would make compared to other elected officials in Oregon.
The City Council now has four options, three of which will
have no tangible effect on the May ballot. At the next work ses-
sion councilors will vote to support the measure, oppose it, re-
main neutral or draft a competing measure.
Klein, the city attorney, recommended the councilors decide
sooner rather than later, as any competing measure will have to
be submitted to him for review by mid-January in order to be
presented by Feb. 12 for submission on the May ballot.
The mayor’s performance auditor study group presented its
findings to the council Monday.
Vinis established the study group six weeks after City Ac-
countability’s measure calling for an elected, independent city
auditor was approved for the ballot. She says she created the
group in response to CA’s measure in order to “have a complete
conversation about auditing.”
The study group reviewed 12 performance auditor pro-
grams around the country, including the proposed measure and
a proposed charter amendment from 2002. The group examined
whether the auditor was appointed or elected, who determines
what will be audited, and the degree of accountability that the au-
ditor has. The comparison can be viewed at eugeneperformance-
auditor.org.
While the group’s job was not to make any recommendations,
its members tell Eugene Weekly they agree that a city auditor is
a good idea. “We all agree with the petitioners,” Vinis says. “We
just need to determine how to do it. We wanted to make sure we
lay the groundwork for later.”
Despite agreeing with the petitioners on the need for an au-
ditor, the study group has concerns about the measure coming
before the voters in May. Study group member Dave Fidanque
told EW there are some deviations from other cities the group
examined.
He points to the “sizable” salary for an elected official — the
proposal calls for a salary that is “not less than 70 percent of the
average of the (a) Eugene City Manager, (b) Salem City Manager,
and c) the Eugene Water and Electric Board’s General Manager.”
It also calls for a minimum auditor’s budget of 0.1 percent of the
city’s total adopted budget and the auditor’s being able to demand
time at City Council meetings. “This is a very strong auditor that
isn’t answerable to council,” Fidanque says.
At the work session Councilor Mike Clark raised concerns
about how much oversight — or lack thereof — the city audi-
tor would have. Councilor Chris Pryor was concerned about lan-
guage in the proposal that points to the city auditor focusing on
“catching and exposing” rather than “improving and saving.”
“I don’t want that to be the function of the job,” Pryor said.
Instead he prefers an auditor to balance the two approaches.
Councilors Jennifer Yeh, Alan Zelenka and Claire Syrett also
had misgivings about the proposed measure. Emily Semple and
Betty Taylor appeared to be in favor of the measure’s language
and aims.
Bonny Bettman McCornack, chief petitioner and a former city
councilor, said in an interview before the work session that even
if the auditor isn’t answerable to the City Council, he or she will
be held accountable to the public through public elections ev-
ery four years, being subject to recalls, and being reviewed every
three years by a professional in accordance with the Generally
Accepted Government Auditing Standards.
McCornack says some of the people whom the petitioners
talked to called for a different form of city government.
Eugene’s charter establishes a very strong office of city man-
ager paired with a relatively weak city council and mayor. Mc-
Cornack says she and the rest of City Accountability don’t believe
this is the issue and that the city government is plenty accessible
— it is simply lacking checks and balances.
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PUBLIC
RECORDS?
What hasn’t been subject to
public review, according to Art
Bollman, a City Accountability
petitioner, is the mayor’s study
group. He did a public records
request for emails between
study group members that
discussed the research and
findings of the group. Bollman
says he was told that only the
emails that included the mayor
were public record.
The city contends that the
group, which was created by the
mayor to conduct research and
provide information to the City
Council, is not a public
committee and thus any emails
that don’t include the mayor are
not subject to the request.
“This study group was
handpicked by the mayor to
present a report to City Council,”
Bollman writes in an email to
EW. “Some people have
questioned whether this
committee is truly neutral. I
submitted a record request
which had large parts of it
denied because it was a private
group.” He says this is an
evasion of Oregon public
records law, and it “flies in the
face of the intent of this act,
and seriously damages the
group’s credibility. This is also a
terrible precedent that cannot
be allowed to stand and cannot
be repeated.”
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eugeneweekly.com • November 22, 2017
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