[A]ll the citizen auditors in the Northeast Kingdom community of Morgan won office just last year. So why did they encourage neighbors at this month’s town meeting to turn around and vote them out?
“I know it’s quaint to have townspeople checking the books, but I think it’s risky,” now former auditor Susan Maginniss says. “I have professionals do my carpentry and electrical work. An audit should be done by someone who knows what they’re doing.”
That’s why Morgan, population 749, has joined a growing list of Vermont municipalities replacing their elected positions with certified public accountants.
Take the town of Westford, population 2,029. Its Selectboard, which commissioned the community’s first professional audit in two decades, unearthed a surprise $168,743 surplus. That led residents — few if any of whom have wanted to serve as volunteer auditors — to vote this month to relinquish the role to CPAs.
Middlebury also just eliminated the elected post after no one in the community of 8,496 wanted to run for office, requiring the duties to be delegated to paid professionals.
Leaders at the Vermont League of Cities and Towns can point to a long list of communities reporting similar circumstances — so many, the trend has made its way into the nonpartisan organization’s Handbook for Locally Elected Auditors.
“The town auditor plays a vital role in preserving the democratic nature of Vermont’s local government by ensuring that local officials are accountable for their expenditures of the taxpayers’ money,” the handbook begins. “It is the auditor’s job to review the accounts of local officials and report the findings directly to the taxpayers for review.”
Then comes Chapter 2: “Elimination of the Office of Auditor.”
“Each year, as municipal budgets grow and sources of revenue become more diverse, the task of auditing municipal financial records becomes more difficult,” it says. “Presently, there is no legal requirement that locally elected auditors have any education or experience in bookkeeping or accounting. As a result, reliance upon locally elected auditors can sometimes create a false sense of municipal financial security.”
State law permits municipalities to cut the position of auditor and contract with a licensed CPA to complete an annual financial audit of government funds. The story of how Morgan decided to do so is typical. A year ago, residents voted in a new slate of well-intentioned citizen auditors.
Recalls Town Clerk Tammy Lee Morin: “They found out there was a lot more work to it than what they thought.”
And Maginniss: “I’m qualified to balance my bank account, but the town is a business, and, frankly, the system has become very complex.”
Morgan’s citizen auditors, seeing the benefits of hiring a professional, joined local leaders in calling for the change. The voice vote wasn’t unanimous: Two residents opposed. But when officials asked for volunteers to take over, no one stepped forward.
The League of Cities and Towns expects the debate to continue. That’s why it spells out all the specifics in the handbook.
“While VLCT continues to support the election of local auditors and their work,” it concludes, “we recommend that towns that have not voted to eliminate the office of auditor obtain periodic or regular audits from a certified public accountant.”
