Two former auditors have filed a lawsuit against the State Board of Education, saying the board wrongfully fired them for refusing to change the results of an audit.

Board members, however, say they terminated the auditors because they wanted them to produce different types of audits and the auditors refused.

Kent Mohlman and Tim Salazar filed the suit in district court Wednesday, saying they were fired for "objecting to and refusing to carry out directives that they reasonably believed violated the laws and regulations governing their positions as Internal Auditors," according to the complaint. The board voted in a closed meeting May 1 to terminate Mohlman, who had worked as an auditor for the board for 18 years, and Salazar, who had worked as a board auditor for about a year.

Mohlman said he and Salazar believe part of the reason they were terminated was for refusing to change the results of an audit released in December about school community councils. The auditors say then-State Superintendent Patti Harrington told them to change parts of the audit and threatened their jobs if they didn't. The auditors, however, say they refused.

"There needs to be some protection for an auditor," Mohlman said Thursday. "An auditor is basically a whistle blower, and any time someone feels like they can manipulate the auditor, you've lost your independence."

Attempts to reach Harrington for comment Thursday evening were unsuccessful. Harrington, however, told The Tribune in May that she criticized a draft of that audit for lacking evidence and for grammatical and spelling mistakes. But she said she never threatened the auditors' jobs.

Salazar said the disagreement had to do with what the state office's role was in the training of school community councils, which make decisions about how to spend school trust land money. Ultimately, Harrington said the state board decided to go with a legislative auditor's opinion that training of school community councils should be mainly a local responsibility and not a state one.

"It was not a big issue of contention, but she threatened our jobs over it," Mohlman said.

Dixie Allen, board vice chairwoman, said Harrington had nothing to do with the board's decision to terminate Mohlman and Salazar. Dave Thomas, a board member who sits on the audit committee, called the lawsuit "frivolous."

Allen said legislative auditors were producing a number of education audits -- including one that found criminals working in Utah schools because of inadequate checks and screening processes -- that the board felt should have come from its own auditors.

Allen said board members told Mohlman and Salazar they'd like to see more of those types of audits. But, she said, the auditors didn't want to produce them.

"They were very, very reluctant to do that," Allen said. "We felt like there were far bigger issues out there we should be finding that we just weren't."

Mohlman said he believes he and Salazar were also fired for openly opposing proposed changes to auditing rules and oversight. Shortly before the board voted to terminate them, the auditors gave board members a letter expressing concerns over the proposed changes, which included making state office employees members of the audit committee, which directs auditors. Another proposed change was to have internal auditors report to the superintendent rather than only to the board. Allen said the board was trying to change its auditing rules to more closely mirror state law.

The auditors, however, felt it wouldn't have made sense to report to the person who ran the system they were charged with auditing.

Ultimately, the board voted in June not to have state office employees sit on the committee but to have auditors report to the superintendent and the board. The rule change also allows the committee to direct auditors to conduct more performance audits to determine whether school districts are following state laws and board rules.

As part of the lawsuit, Mohlman and Salazar are seeking reinstatement, payment of back wages and lost benefits, legal costs and other damages.

In August, the board hired then-Utah Department of Human Services Audit Director Tom Obray, who specializes in performance audits, to replace Mohlman and Salazar.